New Beginnings
by SSanity
Summary: After a girl's village is destroyed, a being resembling an angel offers to save her, provided she is of use to him. What could he want her for, and what is Cruxis? This will be her new life, her second chance. However, not everything is as it seems. Sometimes, lost things cannot be regained. However, who's to say new happiness cannot be found?
1. Prologue

**Author's Note: **Hey there! Welcome to my story! This is my first fic, so constructive criticism is **very, very, welcome!** While it has a bit of a slow start, this is only the first chapter! I can promise lots of Yggdrasill, Kratos, and Yuan by chapter 2! *cough* AlongWithOtherFavoritesLater *cough*

**Disclaimer: **I don't own Tales of Symphonia!

Ancient Egyptians believed that upon death  
they would be asked two questions  
and their answers would determine  
whether they could continue their journey in the afterlife.  
The first question was, "Did you bring joy?"  
The second was, "Did you find joy?"  
-Leo Buscaglia

-0-0-0-

Ozette was never a terribly bright place, having seemed to practically sprout up from the roots of the trees themselves. It was nestled in the forests east of Sybak and the Gaoracchia region. It never had many visitors, and was really only known for its rather strong contempt for half-elves, compared to the rest of Tethe'alla where half-elves weren't well-liked (to put it mildly) in the first place, and for being the only place where Sacred Wood could be harvested. However, on that day, it was brighter than ever. The fires raging all over the small village consumed everything. My memory of the events that took place that day is fuzzy, and I can't remember how the fires started, but I remember pain. I remember being on the ground staring up through the trees as they burned, thinking that through the flames, the stars were even more beautiful. I remember feeling hopeless, and I remember the screaming. Everyone, human and half-elf alike, were screaming. Looking for family members unaccounted for, children being carried while mothers looked for their husbands. Everyone was panicking, running around looking for safe ways out of the village, any path that wasn't burning, any opening not blocked by fallen debris…

There weren't any.

-0-0-0-

_Earlier That Evening_

"What's eating you?"

I look up after hearing a soft voice behind me. I hadn't even realized that he'd come out of the house, but sure enough my brother is standing behind me on the porch, two cups of tea in hand. His pale gray eyes concerned.

"…Nothing," I reply. He looks at me doubtfully and hands me a cup. He sits down on the edge of the porch next to me so we are side by side, legs dangling off the ledge. When he's home, sometimes we like to sit outside and watch the sunset, it's just something we've always done. When our mother was alive, she'd be out here, too. She'd tell us stories or just ask us about our day. Today, there's a gentle wind, sending its fingers through the leaves. He sighs and runs a hand through his short silver hair.

"Come on, Skye. I know that look."

I take a sip of the tea, deliberating over whether or not to say what I'm really thinking. After a moment, I make up my mind. "I suppose there's no fooling you, huh?"

"Of course not, what kind of brother would I be if I couldn't even tell when my little sister is lying to me?" He says with a small smile.

"The kind that knows how to mind his own business," I say, poking him in the side. He gives a small chuckle.

"Well that just wouldn't be my style, would it?" He asks, giving me a small shove.

"No, I suppose not."

We sit in silence for a few moments, just enjoying the fresh air and familiar company. The tea is just the way I like it, lightly sweetened and with a hint of jasmine. It's fresh and warm, comforting. He must have already known something was off about my mood before he came outside, otherwise there wouldn't be tea.

"Ready to tell me what's wrong, now?" he asks.

"Mistral," I warn him.

"I'm not taking no for an answer, Skye."

"Nothing's wrong," I reply. He gives me a doubtful look. "Really," I say. "Something just feels a little off this afternoon. Maybe it's just my imagination. I'm being stupid."

He frowns and looks at me for a moment.

I wave my hand through the air, as if dismissing the topic. "Anyway, what do you have planned for the rest of today?"

"Well, we haven't really been able to see each other much lately," he says. I have to admit, that is true. Between my job at the inn and him being away fairly often because of his job as a craftsman we don't always get to spend much time together. He is always traveling to Sybak and Meltokio to sell his wares. "I thought I'd just take it easy today. I don't have to leave again until tomorrow morning. We could head into the village and have some fun, and there are also some supplies I need to pick up for tomorrow."

"Fun? In Ozette? Are you joking?" I say, with a raised eyebrow. He laughs.

"Point taken," he says. "Maybe it's time to get out of Ozette for awhile… For both of us."

I widen my eyes in shock. "Did I hear you correctly? I think you just suggested that you'll take me with you when you leave tomorrow."

He grins at me and replies, "You heard right, then."

"What happened to you always telling me that it's a 'dangerous journey' to get all the way to Meltokio?" I say, rolling my eyes. "As if just because I'm a girl I wouldn't be able to handle it."

"Well, maybe I just decided it's time to give you a chance. Besides, are you really arguing? Can you honestly admit you'd be happy if you had to stay here the rest of your life?" he asks.

-0-0-0-

_"Are you happy here?" says a voice coming from the doorway behind me. I turn around from my place at the stove. I'm making breakfast for the guests of the inn. We don't have many guests at the moment, but even so, I don't recognize this boy. He couldn't be more than fourteen, with eyes like the ocean that Mother had taken Mistral and I to see in Altamira once when I was very young and hair that looks like gold spun into silk. His clothes are white with a turquoise trim, and matching turquoise pants. He has two matching turquoise bracelets on his right arm, and one on his left._

_ "Pardon?" I say._

_ "Are you happy? Do you like it here, in this village?" he repeats._

_ I think about the question for a moment. Things aren't exactly perfect here, especially not when you're a half-elf. However, it's not as if I've been to many other places. Mother died when I was eight, and after that, visits to other towns stopped, as the only one left to take care of me was Mistral who was twelve at the time. I was too young to remember very many of the places we'd traveled to before her death. I remember having been to Altamira and Meltokio once. Even so, as long as Mistral was with me, I was… content. Not happy per se, but content._

_ "It's not exactly a place I want to spend my whole life in. Someday, I'd like to travel the world. I want to see everything with my own eyes, experience things through my own wanderings, not through others' stories." I reply, after realizing I had been lost in thought for a moment too long._

_ "I see," he says softly before turning and walking out of the room, leaving me alone once again. After smelling something strange, I realize that the eggs are burning, and rush to save the ones that are salvageable._

_-0-0-0-_

"Skye?"

A hand appears in my vision, waving in front of me, soon followed by Mistral's face. I look up, startled. "Sorry, what were you saying?"

He frowns at me, but decides not to pick at it. "Nothing... Here, you're done with your tea, right? Give me your cup. I'll go wash these and then we can head into the village," he says. Mistral stands up and I hand him my cup. He heads inside the house, and I stand up too, brushing my pants off. He walks back out after a moment, and ruffles my slightly longer than shoulder-blade length silver hair, and I push his hand away. "Stop it!" I say, with a laugh. Although we have the same shade of hair, our eyes are different colors. While his are a pale gray that change slightly from day to day, whether it be with tints of blue or green, mine are a sky blue color. It's why Mother named me Skye. Other than that, we don't really bear much of a resemblance, probably because we're only half-siblings. I've never met my father, but I can't really complain, because neither has Mistral. I guess Mother didn't really go for the dependable type.

"You ready to go?" he asks with a smile.

"Yeah," I reply.

As we make our way into the village, I can't help remembering that strange boy from this morning. I had forgotten about our encounter until talking to Mistral. Why would he ask me a question like that? We've never even met before… I suppose there's no real point in dwelling over it. He's probably just some traveler's son. It's not likely that I'll see him again.

I shake myself out of my thoughts to realize that we've arrived in the village and I've lost Mistral somewhere because I wasn't paying attention. Oh well, it's not like the village is large. I'm sure he'll find me again all, he was only going to pick up some supplies at the shop. I decide to have a walk around. There are some children playing over in front of a group of houses, a few girls skipping rope, and a mix of boys and girls who seem to be playing a game of tag. There's another, younger, child sitting with a woman who looks like his mother. She seems to be reading him a story. It makes me miss the days when Mother would read stories to Mistral and me.

I continue walking and turn a corner to the area where the shop is. I see a flash of blond hair and white clothes… The boy from this morning? I decide to follow him. I want to ask him about that strange conversation. I turn a corner in between a couple of buildings, but he's not there. Suddenly, there's an explosion from what sounds like the middle of town, and I hear screams. I run back where I came from, and hear another explosion, this one from the direction of the shop. Mistral went to the shop! Intense fear for my brother has me running towards the shop, which is now a raging inferno…

"No… _No. _NO!" I scream, abandoning all sense of reason and running towards the building looking for a way in. _This can't be happening… _"Mistral! Where are you!? Can you hear me!? Please, please, please…" I yell. Thick, hot tears are blurring my vision, and I can't hear anything except for my rapid heartbeat and the crackling of the flames. There's yelling from the village center, but it's not really registering right now. All I want is to find my brother.

I finally decide that I'm just going to run through the doorway and search the building when something very large hits me in the back of the neck and I fall, landing face down on the ground. I'm stunned for a moment, the pain not even registering. I roll over onto my back. I don't have the strength to do anything more than that. I look around, and all I can see is flames and burning buildings. Distantly, I can hear screaming. Is this it? This is the end? I don't want to die here. I don't want to be alone. I don't want my brother to be… No, I can't even think it. I try to get up again, but I fail.

Just when I've begun to resign myself to my fate, I see the boy again. He's standing a little ways off to my right. Just standing, and looking at me. After a moment, he starts to walk towards me. There's a flash of light, and then in his place stands a man. The man… he looks just like an older version of the boy. He has the same color hair and eyes, but he looks to be in his twenties, rather than a young teen. He's wearing white as well, but this time with gold trim… For a moment, I think I must be hallucinating; surely those can't be wings on his back? He continues walking towards me, but that's not even registering now. All I can think is how beautiful this man is. Is he an angel? Am I dying? His wings are large, extending nearly to the ground, and are a translucent pink color, seemingly made of light.

"I can help you," he says, voice smooth as silk. "But you must do something for me in return… I am an angel of Cruxis, the organization that rules over this world. What exactly I need from you is of no importance right now, however. You need merely say the words, and I will take you from this place."

I'm not entirely sure what's going on, but I know that I don't want to die. "Please… H-help me..."

He smiles. "Then, it is done."

I lose consciousness.

-0-0-0-

**Author's End Note: **What do you think? Click that review button down there! Got some constructive criticism? Wanna tell me how much I suck? That's what the button is down there for! Go do it! Thank you. :)


	2. Chapter 1

**A/N: **here's the next chapter! Quite a bit longer this time. Lots of Yuan, and a bit of Kratos and Yggdrasill too (and oh god, I hate writing about their clothes). Yay! Enjoy. :) (Also, if anyone doesn't quite understand the switch to 3rd person POV, the first chapter was only in 1st person so that you might be able to understand what Skye was really like. The rest of the story will continue in 3rd person POV unless there are flashbacks. Thank you.)

**Disclaimer:** Still don't own ToS. Boohoo.

-0-0-0-

What allows us, as human beings, to psychologically survive life on earth, with all of its pain, drama, and challenges, is a sense of purpose and meaning.  
**-Barbara de Angelis**

-0-0-0-

Yuan is sitting at his desk in his office in Welgaia wondering exactly why he had received reports that Ozette had been destroyed. He was not aware that Yggdrasill had any plans of doing this, but knows that he must have, because no one else in Cruxis would have done it, and no one outside of Cruxis was currently capable of the feat. With magitechnology weapons long gone from the worlds, humans wouldn't have the power to destroy the village, and the elves wouldn't have a reason to. He supposes that it may have been because of the madness that Yggdrasill is prone to at times, but he's never gone so far as to destroy a town yet, no matter how small or unimportant it is.

There's a flash of light, and Yuan knows that Yggdrasill has appeared in his office. "Yggdrasill, how many times have I told you, there's a door on that wall for a reason?" Yuan says, not looking up from the reports on his desk.

"I do not have time for doors," Yggdrasill scoffs.

"Yggdrasill, you have been living for over 4,000 years and will probably continue to live indefinitely, I believe you have all the time in the –"

"Yuan, I have no time for your ramblings, help me with this," Yggdrasill orders. The teal-haired man looks up to see the blond half-elf carrying an unconscious girl over to the couch in the corner of the room. She has silver hair in her face and is obviously injured judging by the blood and various bruises covering her body. From her unusual mana signature she must be a half-elf, but there seems to be something else strange about her, as well. He's not quite sure what to think of this new development.

"… And why have you brought an unfamiliar, injured girl to my office, today? This is certainly unusual for you, I thought for sure brunettes would be more your type," Yuan says sarcastically, not happy about the cleaning up he'll have to do later.

"Healing magic is not my strong suit, and I cannot find Kratos," Yggdrasill replies, slightly annoyed at Yuan's sarcasm.

Yuan comes around his desk and takes a closer look at the girl. He realizes that she's older than he first thought, probably around nineteen or twenty. She's petite, and he supposes that when that is combined with her current unconscious state, she would seem younger to just the passing glance. He makes note of her injuries and says to Yggdrasill, "She seems to be beyond the point of Kratos' healing abilities anyway. She looks close to death. Once again, Yggdrasill, why have you brought her here?"

"That doesn't matter right now, all you need to know is that I have. She may be of some use to us, and I would like to explore that potential. However, what we need to do right now is find some way to fix the state that she is in. There were… unexpected complications in my retrieval of her," Yggdrasill replies.

"Well if you desire to save her then we need to act quickly. Neither of us is proficient with healing, so you take care of her wounds the traditional way, and I'll go track down Kratos. We'll figure out what to do from there when I find him. For now, you can take her into my room and lay her down on the bed," Yuan says, walking out of the room.

"What does he take me for, a doctor?" Yggdrasill mutters under his breath. He looks down at the girl, not even knowing what the first thing he should do for her is. He decides he'll do as Yuan says, and take her to a place that is more easily maneuverable. He picks her up again, and carries her into the adjacent room – Yuan's bedroom. After setting her down on the bed he decides that he should probably clean her wounds so he can see exactly what's wrong and if anything is still bleeding. He goes to another room to retrieve a warm washcloth and when he comes back he starts working on her wounds. The girl doesn't even stir – she's out cold.

After a few minutes of this Yuan returns with Kratos. Yggdrasill isn't particularly surprised – Yuan always knew Kratos and his habits better than himself. It wasn't a surprise that Yuan could find him with almost no effort at all. Kratos walks over to the bed and begins to inspect the girl, both with magic and physically. He notices her strange composition of mana, but decides not to comment on it. It's not important right now.

"Most of these wounds are not life-threatening on their own; however, the combination of them all is a serious thing. She also appears to be concussed. How long has she been out?" he asks.

Yggdrasill thinks for a moment. "About an hour," he replies.

Kratos nods. "And there have been no signs of her regaining consciousness?"

"No."

"… I see," Kratos replies, continuing with his inspection, and the little bit of healing that he can do. "I'll need to undress her to heal the rest of her wounds and bandage them."

Yggdrasill and Yuan nod, and walk out of the room. They'd like to let her keep as much dignity as possible, and it's not as if the two haven't seen a woman before. Kratos continues with what he was doing, and when he's finished he covers her with the blanket. He doesn't bother with redressing her – her clothes are ruined anyway. He can order some of the lesser angels to find some clothes and redress her themselves later. He walks back out to the office where the other two are waiting.

"If she hasn't stirred within another hour or two, we'll need to think of something else – I've done all I can," he says softly. "In the meantime, why doesn't someone tell me why she's here in the first place?"

"That is not for you to know, yet," Yggdrasill replies.

He looks to Yuan for an answer. The teal-haired man shrugs, as if to say _I haven't a clue._

"I see."

-0-0-0-

2 Days Later

Kratos ends his inspection and walks out of the bedroom. Yggdrasill had ordered some of the lesser angels to tend to the girl, and Kratos was only needed to go check on how she was doing every few hours. There seemed to have been no change in her condition, and he needed to tell the other two men that it was time to try something else. He had something in mind, but he didn't entirely like the idea of it… He didn't want to submit someone else to the same fate as them, but if she was truly important to some plan of Yggdrasill's, there was really no choice. Even if he didn't bring it up, the other two would surely think of it on their own.

"Kratos, what is your opinion on what we should do with her?" asks Yggdrasill.

Kratos mentally apologizes to the girl for what he is about to say. "She's not going to heal on her own. I think there is one way to save her, but…" he trails off.

"What is it?" Yuan asks, curiously.

"We could give her a Cruxis crystal and induce the angel transformation process. She would become one of us, rather than one of the lesser angels this way, but I can see no other way, and if she is truly important to some plan of yours, Yggdrasill…"

"We'll do it," Yggdrasill says in a tone that leaves no room for argument.

"Very well," Kratos replies, quietly. _At least since she shows no signs at all of waking up any time soon, she won't have to feel the pain of the transformation, _he thinks.

-0-0-0-

Skye opens her eyes for what seems like the first time in awhile, but instantly closes them again. Everything is so bright that it hurts. She decides to wait on that particular sense of hers, and uses the others to make a guess at where she is. She's laying on something soft, it seems. There's a pillow underneath her. It must be a bed, but it doesn't feel like hers… It doesn't smell like hers either. Not that it has a bad smell to it, but it's strange. It smells like someone else. After a moment, she decides to try opening her eyes again, this time opening them slowly, and squinting into the room, before opening them fully. She notices a man across the room from her, and she must have made some small noise because he turns around and looks at her.

"Ah, so you're awake. How do you feel?" the man asks. She takes a moment to look at him before answering. He's wearing a small smile on his face, as if to convey to her that he doesn't mean her any harm, and his green eyes are not unkind. His long teal-colored hair is tied up and draped in front of one shoulder. His green eyes are looking over her, as if he's checking over her condition. He's fairly tall compared to her average height, probably around a little over 6 feet, maybe 6'1" and slender, but you can tell that underneath the clothes, there would be muscle definition. His body type possibly suggesting that he's made for speed more than power. His clothes are mostly white, with accents of gray, red, and gold. He wore white pants and a long-sleeved shirt, with a type of armor that looked easy to move around in. The armor was mostly red, but had gray accents and a gold trim. It had matching gauntlets and greaves. His shoes also matched, and he wore a cape that was gray with a red inside and a gold fringe at the bottom edge. He looked like the type of man who was prepared for anything that may come his way.

"Who are you?" Skye asks warily.

"My name is Yuan Ka-Fai," the man, Yuan, replies. "And yours?"

"Skye Vidall," she answers. "I would introduce myself properly and stand to shake your hand, but I'm not sure I can at the moment," she admits with a shaky laugh.

"Don't worry about it."

Starting to feel a little awkward, and still not understanding where she is, or why this strange man is here, she decides to get straight to the point. "Where am I, exactly?"

"Currently you're in my bed," he replies with a small smirk. "As for where this place is, you will need to wait for an explanation from Yggdrasill. He will be better at explaining because he's the one who brought you here," he finishes, before walking out of the room. "Don't worry about getting up, I'll be back in a minute with some fresh clothes for you," he calls over his shoulder.

Skye decides to take this opportunity to inspect the room. She sits up and swings her legs out of bed, but doesn't take the blanket off, because she has noticed she doesn't have much clothing on. The walls and floor are the same exact shade of white, but there is a soft light gray rug in front of the bed. The bed is pushed up against the western wall, it's headboard touching the wall, and there are small end tables on either side. There's a wardrobe against the eastern wall with a desk on the left of it, and a bookshelf on the right. There's a potted plant in the far right corner of the room, and the door leading out of the room is to the north of her. Behind her is a mirror. The whole room is very neat and organized. The strangest thing about it seems to be that there are no windows.

Not long after she finishes looking the room over Yuan returns carrying some clothes over his arm. "You've lost a bit of weight since you first arrived, but these clothes should fit you well enough," he says as he hands them over.

"Thank you," she says sincerely as she takes them. "Could you…?"

"Of course," he says quickly. "Just call when you're done changing. We'll see if you can walk and then decide whether you can go to Yggdrasill or if he should come to you."

Skye nods and Yuan walks out of the room making sure to shut the door behind him. She takes the blanket off and attempts to stand. Her legs are shaky, and they feel weak; however, she can still stand up. She spreads the clothes out on the bed and looks at them. There is a sapphire blue tank top, a light grey jacket, a pair of pants that match the jacket, some under-clothes that are the same sapphire blue as the tank top, and a pair of plain black leather boots. She gets dressed looks at herself in the mirror, turning around a couple of times, and realizes that the clothes actually fit nearly perfectly.

Rather than calling for Yuan, she decides to simply walk into the other room on her own. Yuan is sitting on the couch across from the doorway, and she walks part of the way over to him and stops. "Thank you for the clothes. They fit perfectly. I actually quite like these colors as well."

"Good. I've informed everyone that you're awake. Are you ready to go see Yggdrasill?"

She nods. "Then let's go," Yuan says as he begins walking out of the room. They begin walking down the hallway and she realizes that it has the same basic color scheme as Yuan's bedroom and office. Everything is just white and gray. She thinks that it's a bit… lifeless. Most places have some sort of distinctive energy about them; maybe it's a bit like a hum that just makes you feel that people live there. This place… It just didn't feel like anything at all.

They continue walking, turning a corner every once in awhile. "Yuan?" she asks.

He stops walking and looks back at her. "Yes?"

"Who is Yggdrasill?"

Yuan is a bit shocked at the question, but he doesn't let it show. What kind of girl doesn't remember the man who saves her life? He thinks it's a rather memorable event… But perhaps she just never learned his name. "Yggdrasill is the man who brought you here. I'm positive that once you've seen him you'll recognize him," he explains.

"…Alright," she says, and they continue their walk. They come to a door that Yuan opens and steps out. When Skye walks out the door, however, she gasps. "The sky…!"

"Relax. Everything will be explained soon. Keep walking," Yuan replies, sounding a bit irritated. She realizes that Yuan hasn't even paused in his pace and she quickens her walking to catch up with him. He doesn't seem concerned about the strange purple color of the sky, so she figures it can't be anything immediately threatening to her.

After some walking through this strange city-like place they come to a strange circle on the ground. She stops to look at it and realizes that Yuan is already standing in the middle of it looking expectantly at her. He holds out his hand and she takes it and walks into the circle. Immediately a strange sensation envelops her, and she closes her eyes for a moment. When she opens them she's in a new place. She can no longer see the strange purple sky and they seem to be in some sort of castle-like building.

They walk up a flight of stairs and through a large door and seem to be in the "throne room" of the castle. It's more a place of broken pillars and stone floor. The top halves of the walls have crumbled down, and there is no ceiling. The sky is showing again. They continue walking and come to a blond man sitting on the "throne" with a red-haired man standing beside him wearing a mostly white outfit with many belts criss-crossed across his chest. The red-haired man also has a couple of belts on each limb, and a cape that is sort of V-shaped. There torso area of the outfit is a dark purple, and there are areas on the sleeves and legs of the outfit as well as the underside of the cape that are a lighter shade of the same purple color. He looks to be around the same height as Yuan.

The blond man stands up and walks over to her. The way he walks is... graceful. It's the only way Skye could describe it. The man is also very regal looking, and his pace is slow and relaxed, footsteps quiet. He is well-muscled, but not overly so, and not like a fighter. He has broad shoulders, though not quite as broad as the red-haired man's, and a narrow waist. He's a bit shorter than Yuan and the other man, probably standing around 5'11" and he's also wearing white, but his clothes are more like a one-piece suit. They are form-fitting, but not enough that they would be uncomfortable or hard to move in. The long sleeves are edged in a gold trim at the bottom, as are the legs, and the v-neck cutout going down to mid-chest. His blond hair is worn down, and very long, but looks to be well-taken care of. It is very neat, as opposed to his red-haired counterpart's almost shoulder-length, spiky style. His bangs hang over to one side of his face, but not messily, and not hiding his features. "I am Yggdrasill," he says as he comes to a stop in front of her.

"Skye Vidall," she replies with her name as well.

"What do you remember of before you arrived in Derris-Kharlan?" he asks.

_Well at least now I have a name for this place, _she thinks. "I… I don't remember much," she says.

"That's to be expected. What I want to know is what you _do_ remember."

She closes her eyes and thinks for a moment. "My memory is… fuzzy. I can remember looking up at the stars… and… fire? I think so. Also, there was… pain. I was afraid. People were screaming… and… and…" she trails off.

"Wait," she says softly. "I..."

-0-0-0-

"_What's eating you?" he asks with pale gray eyes full of concern._

_ "…Nothing," I reply. When he's home, sometimes we like to sit outside and watch the sunset, it's just something we've always done. Today, there's a gentle wind, sending its fingers through the leaves. He sighs and runs a hand through his short silver hair._

_ "Come on, Skye. I know that look…."_

-0-0-0-

"…_What kind of brother would I be if I couldn't even tell when my little sister is lying to me?" He says with a small smile._

_ "The kind that knows how to mind his own business," I say, poking him in the side. He gives a small chuckle._

_ "Well that just wouldn't be my style, would it?" He asks, giving me a small shove…_

-0-0-0-

_ "…Point taken," he says. "Maybe it's time to get out of Ozette for awhile… For both of us." _

_ I widen my eyes in shock. "Did I hear you correctly? I think you just suggested that you'll take me with you when you leave tomorrow."_

_ He grins at me and replies, "You heard right, then…" _

_-0-0-0-_

"…_Can you honestly admit you'd be happy if you had to stay here the rest of your life?" he asks._

-0-0-0-

The flashback ends. Skye collapses to her knees. "No… My brother… I… Mistral!" she cries. Tears pour down her face, and she forgets that there are other people around. All she can think about right now is the fire, the collapsing building, the village burning, and her brother's probable death.

She feels a hand come down on her shoulder, and remembers that there are indeed other people around; she's not alone in the room. She quickly stands up and apologizes. There'll be plenty of time to cry later, when she's alone. "I-I'm sorry. I had forgotten where I was," she says, wiping the tears from her face. Yuan removes his hand from her shoulder.

A determined look comes to her face. "Yggdrasill," she says. "I remember, right before I lost consciousness, you said that you could help me. It's obvious that you held up your end of the deal, since I'm here right now. What can I do to repay that debt?"

Yuan is impressed. She composed herself rather quickly, and is now moving onto more practical things. After all, tears don't help anyone. Yggdrasill, too, is pleasantly surprised. He didn't know that she was so honorable; he thought he might have to persuade her to do what he wanted.

"First, let me start out by explaining the situation," he says. "Do you know about the Church of Martel?"

She nods. It's common knowledge. Did he think she was an idiot?

"Then I'm sure you're familiar with the journey of the Chosen," he continues. "This journey, while under the premise of regenerating the world, is actually a process of reversing the mana flow between the two worlds: Tethe'alla and Sylvarant."

"Two worlds…?" she questions.

"Yes. I suppose I should start at the beginning then… In short, 4,000 years ago, during the Kharlan War, the heroes Mithos and Martel Yggdrasill, Yuan Ka-Fai, and Kratos Aurion had split the two warring countries – namely Sylvarant and Tethe'alla – into two separate worlds with the power of the Eternal Sword granted to them by Origin. This was done in order to preserve the remaining mana in the world that was quickly being used up by the magitechnology used in the War…"

"But those names -" Skye starts.

"Yes," Yggdrasill interrupts. "We are over 4,000 years old."

He exchanges a look with Yuan and brings out his wings. This prompts Yuan to do the same. "Do you understand now? The power of our Cruxis crystals allowed us to become 'angels'. Through the manipulation of our bodies' mana, we no longer age. We can even change the very way we look," he explains, switching to his 'Mithos' form, and back again.

The red-haired man walks over to continue the explanation. "When you lost consciousness and Yggdrasill brought you back here, you were in a coma for a month and a half. We could find no other way of getting you to heal and awaken, so we had to give you a Cruxis Crystal and induce the angel transformation as well," he says. "You're one of us now."

She looks at him in disbelief. "I don't have wings."

_This is what she chooses to focus on? _"You do. Close your eyes and concentrate on the mana in your body, and imagine it extending out of your back… Open your eyes. See how simple it was?"

She twists around and looks behind her. Sure enough, there are wings there. They are a sapphire color, and they sparkle a bit.

"How is this possible…?" she mutters.

"That's the power of the Cruxis Crystal," Yuan answers her this time.

"After the worlds had been split, we formed Cruxis in order to ensure their continued existence, and also to watch over the Chosen ones, and guide them on their journeys when needed." Yggdrasill says.

She is quiet for a moment, thinking about how to phrase her next question. "Okay… Alright, knowing all of this, what is it that you want from me? I'm certainly no 4,000 year old hero like everyone else in this room."

Yuan lets out a harsh laugh. Yggdrasill gives him a look before answering her. "What I want from you is for you to serve under me. From today on, you will be the Fifth Seraphim. You will follow my orders, and perform duties similar to those of Kratos and Yuan…"

"Then so be it."

Everyone is silent.

"I owe you my life, and if my service is what you require for me to pay back that debt, then consider it paid."

Kratos is the one who speaks this time. "… You realize that you're going to live indefinitely from here on? You will no longer die from natural causes, and it will be nearly impossible for someone to kill you. You will not age, and everyone you've ever met or cared about will be gone from the world long before you."

"I realize that… But what else do you expect me to do? My only family is gone, my village is destroyed, and I'm a half-elf. There's really nothing for me left…" she says sadly. "So if I can take this life, and turn it into something useful for the ones who gave me this second chance, then I'm willing to do that. After all, who can be happy in a life without purpose?" she says quietly.

They are all quiet for a few moments, deep into their own thoughts. Yggdrasill is the first one to speak. "Then your training will begin tomorrow. Though Cruxis may be powerful, we still have enemies. I can't let you die before your debt has been repaid, now can I?" he says with a small smirk.

-0-0-0-

**A/N: **Well, thanks for reading if you made it this far. :) I know I'm not a great writer, but I've just started and things will hopefully get better. (Reviews will help me be a better writer as well, leave me some constructive criticism!) Have a nice day, lovelies! :D


	3. Chapter 2

**A/N: **This is a shorter chapter this time, but it felt like an appropriate place to end it. Quite a bit of Kratos in this one. Lots of him and Yuan in the next one! It'll be finished and uploaded before you know it. :) But for now, enjoy this chapter!

**Disclaimer:** Still don't own ToS, but if I did... Ohhhh boy. ;D

-0-0-0-

Gratitude is a form of wisdom. It is patient, loving, hopeful, and rigorously honest. It denies nothing, and it overlooks nothing. It looks reality full in the face and says: This is true, this is me, this is my situation, and I have the opportunity to build from here. This is my starting point, and I will succeed!  
**-Phil Humbert**

-0-0-0-

"Kratos, I think it's about time that Yuan is able to have his bedroom back; show Skye to her own room," Yggdrasill orders. "I don't care where you decide is best, but I think it would be most convenient to keep her close to either your room, or Yuan's."

Kratos nods in agreement. "Let us go, then," he says to Skye.

"Right," she says with a smile. He starts to walk back to the large double doors and out of the room with her walking next to him. After they exit the room and have made it down the stairs, Skye stops and turns to Kratos.

"So, your name is Kratos? I haven't had a chance to introduce myself properly," she says. She holds out her hand. "My name is Skye Vidall. It's a pleasure to meet you."

Kratos reaches out and they shake hands. "Likewise."

_A man of few words, huh?_ Skye thinks. They begin walking again and are soon at the teleporter that takes them back to the city-like place. Skye is rather unnerved by the place. It's not just the strange sky, but the fact that the sprawling city practically seems deserted. It's very cold- and impersonal-feeling. Everything is white and gleaming. There are strange machines, and the whole place is something she thinks she's going to have a hard time getting used to. She misses the trees and plants and just _nature_ of Ozette.

"Kratos, can I ask you something?" she says, hesitantly.

"What do you wish to know?"

"What exactly is Derris-Kharlan? And this place we're in right now, what is it called? It's different from the castle-like area we were just in."

"Derris-Kharlan is a large comet made up of mana. It was the original homeland of the elves before they decided to move themselves down to Aselia – your world. It is currently held here by Origin's power, and the Eternal Sword, as is the wish of Yggdrasill. This city is called the Holy City of Welgaia. The castle we just came from is Vinheim," he explains.

Skye makes a thoughtful noise. "But how do the people on Aselia not see it? It's a giant purple comet!"

"That, too, is the power of the Eternal Sword."

Skye sounds a low whistle. "Wow, the Eternal Sword is really amazing. It's hard to believe that something can have that much power."

Kratos makes a 'hmm' sound that might be an agreement, but also might not. Skye doesn't really know him well enough to be sure, yet. They continue walking until they come to a building that she thinks is the same one she left when she was with Yuan, and Kratos holds the door open for her to enter. They walk down a few hallways, making some turns here and there, until they eventually stop at a door.

"This will be your room," Kratos says as he opens the door and they walk into the room. "My room is two doors down the hall. If you should need anything, I will probably be there. No one else lives in this hallway, so don't worry about not being able to find the room."

Skye looks around the room. It's about as bare as Yuan's was, though a bit larger because she doesn't have any other rooms attached, like Yuan's office, other than the open door on the west wall that leads to a bathroom. There's a double bed, a closet a few feet from the bathroom door, and a desk. There's a small living area, separated by a wall that extends half-way into the room, which has a small couch and an empty bookshelf. Skye decides she'll definitely have to do some decorating when she has some extra gald.

Kratos makes for the door to leave, but is stopped when Skye begins to speak. "I have a few more questions, if it's no trouble?" Skye asks.

_She's a very inquisitive girl,_ Kratos thinks. "Alright, ask away."

"I don't quite understand why this city is so large, when only the three of you seem to live here. Are there more people here? Why haven't I seen anyone else?" she asks.

"The other inhabitants of the city are what we call 'lesser angels,' while I and the others are referred to as 'seraphim,'" he explains. "The lesser angels are… well, you could say that they're rather 'lifeless.' Their Cruxis Crystals are different from ours, and therefore work differently. While we still have all of our senses, the lesser angels cannot taste, feel, sleep, or feel emotion. They have no need of food or warm clothing. They exist, but I'm not sure you could really call it 'living.' The Chosens of Regeneration also lose their senses when they release the seals, but they also become more like one of us than like a lesser angel. We, however, can still function as normal human beings. We don't need to eat in order to survive, but we can still enjoy the taste of our favorite foods. We can still feel the heat of the sun at the beach in Altamira, and the chilly snowfall of Flanoir. We don't have to sleep, but we still have the ability to. We can still feel grief when people close to us die, and anxiety before an important mission," he finishes. "As for why you haven't seen them, the lesser angels may not be able to sleep, but they still stick to what you might call their natural schedule. At night, they retreat to their homes."

"I see. Thank you for the explanation, I think I understand now." Skye says. She feels grateful that they allowed her to become one of the seraphim. She feels a bit sad for the lives the lesser angels live. They must be… lonesome.

"You're welcome. Now settle in and get some rest. Your training starts tomorrow, or have you forgotten?" Kratos says. "It will be quite extensive, so you'll need your energy."

Skye shakes her head with a small smile. "I haven't forgotten. Can you tell me a little bit of what my training will be like?"

Kratos thinks for a moment. He's trying to decide what would be the best way to begin her training. "Well, I suppose it would be best to start you off with basic fighting skills, and Yuan will begin instructing you on how to use magic. Eventually we'll teach you how to use your angelic abilities as well, but those are a bit harder to learn."

"Alright," she says. Kratos starts off towards the door again. "Have a nice night, Kratos." He turns back for a moment to tell her the same and leaves the room.

Skye isn't really sure what to do with the rest of her alone time, so she decides to take Kratos' advice. She goes to bed, but she can't fall asleep right away. Now that she's alone, the day's events come back to her in full-force… She misses her brother… but most of all, she feels guilt for both having failed to save him, and for forgetting about him. She vows to herself that to try and make up for her failings, she's going to serve Yggdrasill the best she can. Tomorrow, she's going to train hard, and she's _going_ to become stronger. She's going to become faster, better, and more resilient. She's going to become someone useful, someone with a _purpose_. It will be a long road, she knows that, but she's not going to be the weak Skye from before anymore. She's going to _succeed_.

But that's tomorrow. Tonight, she cries herself to sleep.

-0-0-0-

**A/N: **Thanks for reading! *gets on hands and knees* drop me a review? :) Next chapter will probably be out around Saturday, central USA time.


	4. Chapter 3

**A/N:** This chapter was challenging. Also, sorry for the later update than I'd planned. Stuff was busy this weekend. D;

**Edit: **Found an image to use for the story cover. I found it through a Google search and couldn't figure out who owned it but... No copyright infringement intended, I didn't create the image, if anyone knows who made it, I'd love to know.

**Disclaimer: **I don't own ToS. If I did, Yuan would have a lot more scenes so I could stare at his pretty hair. :3

-0-0-0-

It is our attitude at the beginning of a difficult task which, more than anything else, will affect its successful outcome.  
**-William James**

-0-0-0-

Skye awakens from a dream that she can't remember the details of when she feels something shaking her left shoulder. She was sleeping on her right side, so she rolls over to face whoever is waking her up. She opens her light blue eyes and finds herself looking up into Yuan's emerald-colored orbs.

"You're quite the heavy sleeper, you know that? I've been trying to wake you up for about five minutes now," he says exasperatedly. "I apologize for walking into your room like this, but you weren't waking up by my knocking on the door, so I decided it would be easier to just come in."

"I'm sorry," Skye says sheepishly, rubbing the sleepiness out of one eye. Yesterday must've been more draining to her than she thought, because she doesn't usually sleep so deeply.

"Meet me in Kratos' room in an hour. We have things to discuss regarding your training. Your closet is already stocked with some clothes," Yuan says abruptly before leaving the room.

Skye gets out of bed and decides that she'll take a shower before going to meet Kratos and Yuan. She walks over to the closet and after opens it. It's larger than she thought it would be, it's actually a (admittedly cramped) walk in closet. There are two bars hanging on the wall to the left and right of the door with shelves underneath each, and on the far side there is a chest of drawers. After looking around, she realizes that Yuan's definition of "stocked with some clothes," is quite different from what she would describe it as. There is one shirt and a jacket hanging up, a pair of pants on the shelf underneath of them, and after opening the chest of drawers to see what's inside, she finds one pair of socks and some undergarments. The clothes are basically identical to the ones she had before, except they're in themes of gold and black rather than blue and light gray. There is a gold sleeveless top and a black jacket with gold trim around the collar and on the ends of the sleeves, as well as matching black pants. The seams running down the outside of the pant legs are done in gold-colored thread as well.

She grabs the clothes and underclothes and walks into the bathroom, shutting the door. It's just an ordinary bathroom, fitting the theme of the rest of the city of Welgaia - white, white, and more white. However, it is a decent size. She sets her clothes down on the counter next to the sink, looks around the room until she locates some shampoo, conditioner, and body wash, and then walks over to turn on the water in the shower. She sticks her hand into the spray a few times until she feels that the water is the perfect temperature, undresses, and steps in.

After her taking her shower, getting dressed, and brushing her teeth, she's ready to go meet with Yuan and Kratos. She leaves her room and walks a little ways down the hallway. The room is just down two doors from hers, right? She knocks on the door of what she hopes is Kratos' room and after a moment it's opened and the red-haired angel steps aside to let her into the room.

Kratos' room is identical structurally to hers, but has touches of personalization. There are many books on Kratos' bookshelf, which is a dark-stained wood as opposed to Skye's white-painted one, and Skye wonders offhandedly if he's read them all, or if he even likes to read. Maybe they are for research purposes? She doesn't know him well enough to know. There are a few potted plants scattered decoratively throughout the room, some bearing small flowers among their leaves, and small violet colored rugs in front of each doorway. She had expected the serious-seeming man that is Kratos to have a more sparsely decorated room, and was a bit surprised at the contrast of reality to her imaginings.

She spies Yuan sitting on the couch a few feet away, one leg crossed over the opposite knee, looking relaxed. The couch is white with small throw pillows on each end matching the violet rugs around the room. There is a dark-stained wooden coffee table matching the bookshelf in front of the couch, as well.

"Morning," she says as she walks into the room and Kratos closes the door behind her. "So what is it we needed to discuss?"

"Have you had any magical training?" Yuan asks her.

"No."

"Do you know anything about using magic?"

"Well I know that I'm able to, in theory, because I'm a half-elf," she says. "But I don't know the specifics of how to use it, no."

Yuan looks at Kratos. "Then I think we should start her with physical training in the mornings, and whenever you are finished then I'll take her for magical."

Kratos nods in agreement. "That sounds reasonable," he says to Yuan. He then turns to Skye. "This would be the best way for you to learn efficiently, I think. While you may be physically exhausted after we're done, you should still have the mental energy left to work with Yuan. If we had you start with Yuan first, you might not be able to handle the strain of physical training on top of the magical," he explains. "We had thought about not making you do both types of training every day, but you would be a more useful member after having some training, and Yggdrasill is hoping to start sending you on at least small assignments within a few weeks."

Skye is solemn. He wants to start sending her away within a few weeks? She wants to be a useful member of this organization, but she feels that she's not going to be ready by then. She doesn't know anything about fighting! How can she even hope to learn the skills she'll need in such a short amount of time…?

Then she remembers the vow she made to herself last night, and her resolve returns. If the two men saw the hesitance, perhaps even fear, which was on her face, they didn't say anything about it. They exchanged a look with each other, however, upon seeing the fierce determination that came after it.

"Well, let's get this show on the road then," she says. "I'm not going to improve any just standing around here."

-0-0-0-

For what was probably the thirtieth time that morning, Skye was knocked onto her backside. She was so frustrated and tired that she was thinking about giving up already. Since Skye had no weapons training at all, nor any magical talent, Kratos decided to just give her a sword and small shield and train her in his own fighting style. She didn't have any particular preference for the type of weapons she was going to be using anyway, and it would be much easier for her to simply emulate him, than to try to come up with her own style of fighting for now. When she was more experienced then she could change her style if she wanted to.

She's not learning to attack yet, just to defend. She needs to learn her weak points before trying to exploit someone else's, Kratos told her. They had started that morning with some exercises meant to strengthen her muscles, and then he showed her the weapon she would be using and gave her a small shield. He immediately attacked her, and obviously that didn't last long. He said that he did that so that he could see the way her natural thought process worked, and how she reacted to enemies. Did she immediately rely on her equipment and strength to defend, or did she attempt to use speed to simply evade an enemy? Would she attempt a counterattack, or stay on the defensive? Or maybe she would simply freeze from fear?

After analyzing her natural reaction patterns, he decided to teach her properly. He saw that she wasn't particularly strong, and told her that she should be using her shield to deflect blows, not "catch" them. She also had a tendency to keep her feet too close together and end up overbalancing when she was attacked, which was why she had just been knocked to the ground, coincidentally.

"Get up."

Skye grimaced. "Yeah, yeah, I know," she said, getting to her feet and brushing herself off.

"Tell me what you did wrong this time," he says.

"I stopped paying attention to where my feet were, and fell when you struck at me because they weren't spaced far enough apart," she admits.

"Good, you've learned something," he says sheathing his sword.

She sighs. They've been training for a couple of hours, and she's exhausted already. "I'm starting to think I'm just not cut out for this," she mutters under her breath.

"If you keep telling yourself that, then it'll become true," Kratos says. "You need to believe in yourself."

Skye blushes a bit; she didn't know that he'd heard her. She hears a slow clap from to the right of her across the large area outside the housing building that they were using to train. She looks over and sees Yuan.

"You ready to learn some magic?" he asks, sounding slightly amused. He must have seen her last, and particularly clumsy, fall.

"No. But yes," she says as he walks over to them. "Might as well get it over with for the day, I suppose. I'm exhausted," she admits as she retrieves her sword from where it landed when she fell. She didn't even remember dropping it, but she must have at some point.

Yuan watches her for a minute. She looks rather exhausted, but more than that, she looks quite frustrated. Her movements are a bit jerky, but she's also shaking a bit. Yuan knows that the reason for the shaking is just the rigorous training though. He remembers when he was first learning to fight, and he was a bit shaky after the first few sessions as well, so he can't really blame her.

"Why don't you take a break for a little bit first? Calm down, get something to eat, maybe? When learning magic you need to be calm or you might hurt yourself," Yuan says. "It's close enough to lunch anyway."

His latter sentence prompts her to look a little more frustrated.

"How can you guys even tell what time it is in this place? It always looks the same. That damn purple sky never changes," she says a bit sullenly.

There was a small twitch of Kratos' lips that might indicate that he was amused. Yuan flat out laughed.

"I see what the problem is, now," Yuan says.

"After you've been here long enough you just know what time it is. It just becomes a… instinctual feeling, I suppose you could say," Kratos explains. "But perhaps we could find a clock for your room," he says. Skye notices that there are times when he doesn't quite smile, he's a bit too stoic for that, but his reddish-brown eyes seem to… get a bit warmer, maybe? This is one of those times, though. She thinks that maybe that's his version of a smile.

"I'd appreciate that," she says honestly. She picks up her black jacket from where she had set it when she had gotten a little too warm while they were training and uses it to wipe some sweat from her forehead. She pushes her bangs out of her eyes and runs her fingers through her hair to straighten it up a bit. "So, where's the food around this place anyway?"

"Your kitchen hasn't been stocked yet, so you'll have to come back to one of our rooms. Whoever makes a trip down to Aselia next will have to pick you up some food," Yuan explains. "There's also a cafeteria run by a couple of the lesser angels, mostly for the benefit of Yggdrasill, but they're only serving at specific times. It's too early for lunch right now, and you've already missed breakfast."

"Okay, I get it. So who's feeding me today?" she asks jokingly with a wide smile, showing white teeth.

"I've got some other things to take care of," Kratos says.

"Guess I've just been volunteered, then," Yuan says, heading back into the building. "Keep up," he tells Skye.

"Right!" she says, walking after him. They make their way back to Yuan's place and go through a door in his office that she hadn't noticed before. It takes them into a decent-sized kitchen. Skye pulls a chair out from a small table and sits down. Yuan walks over to the refrigerator and takes out some things that Skye can't see and starts preparing something at the counter.

She finds herself watching his back as he works at the counter. After all, he's really the only interesting thing in the room right now. She takes notice of his broad shoulders and his narrow waist, his long teal hair, and his admittedly nice backside. She starts to wonder why all of the men she seems to be surrounded by lately are so attractive… and blushes faintly as she notices that he has turned around and started walking toward her while she was staring.

He doesn't seem to notice and hands her the plate in his left hand, and sits down across from her with the other one and starts eating the sandwich that is on it. She takes a look at the sandwich he gave her and sees that it's a cold chicken sandwich with lettuce and tomato slices on it. She's trying to make up her mind about whether she should take the tomato slices off and hope that he doesn't think it's too rude, or whether she should just force herself to eat it.

"Something wrong?" he asks.

She decides to just set the tomato slices on the side of her plate and eat the sandwich. "Sorry, I just don't really like tomatoes. Never have."

Yuan shrugs. "It's alright. I suppose I should have asked whether you liked the things before I put them on there," he says as he grabs the tomato slices off of her plate and pops one in his mouth, putting the other on his sandwich. "Kratos doesn't like them either," he says after he finishes eating it.

She can't quite imagine Kratos openly displaying his dislike of anything, but she believes him. "Thanks for the food, though. It's good."

He nods and they finish eating in silence. Yuan grabs their plates and takes them over to the sink and comes back with a glass of water. It's filled up about half-way. Instead of handing it to her, he sets it in the middle of the table and smacks her hand away when she tries to pick it up, assuming that it's hers.

"You can have this glass of water after you learn to use some water magic," he explains.

She mentally groans. Of course he couldn't just _give _her the water. He seems to read her mind and smirks, emerald eyes amused. "Relax, it shouldn't be too hard."

He sits back down across from her. "Now, I'm going to try and make this as easy for you as possible. The first thing I want you to do is close your eyes and use your senses and imagine what water 'feels' like to each one of them. Imagine how it feels to take a drink of water, imagine the rain on your skin; imagine the smell of the sea. Imagine what the ocean looks like at sunset, and imagine the sound of the rain on the roof of your home."

"Now, take those feelings, and imagine some of the mana from your body taking the form of water. What I want you to do is push that mana out from your body and fill up the rest of this glass," he explains.

Skye is motionless, trying to do what he told her to. After a few moments, a small little jet of water comes out of nowhere and shoots out to the left of the glass by a couple of inches. "That's it?" she asks disappointedly.

He laughs. "What'd you expect? You've never performed magic before. Everyone starts somewhere."

"I guess you're right," she admits.

He instructs her for a couple of hours more until she gets the hang of using that particular water spell, and can produce three small water jets. He tells her that the spell she's learning is similar to "aqua edge," and that she'll probably be able to fully use the spell later.

Skye feels proud. She feels like she's really accomplished something today. She imagines that someday, maybe she'll be as powerful the two seraphim teaching her… but she has a _long_ way to go if that's ever going to happen. However, for now, this is good enough. She has more than just a purpose now; she has a goal that she can actively work towards. She's starting to believe in herself. She can do this.

She wonders if Mistral would be proud of her progress.

-0-0-0-

**A/N:** Are my characters too OOC? Constructive criticism is nice, so review! Thanks for reading! :)


	5. Chapter 4

**A/N: **Here's the next chapter. I don't have much to say about this one other than I hope you enjoy it!

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Tales of Symphonia. I never will. D;

-0-0-0-

When one has one's hand full of truth it is not always wise to open it.

**-French proverb**

-0-0-0-

"You wanted to speak with me?" Kratos asks Yggdrasill. The blond man had sent one of the lesser angels to find the seraphim. The lesser angel had informed him that Yggdrasill wanted to speak with him, so Kratos had made his way to the throne room that Yggdrasill seemed to be fond of. Currently, the blond angel is lounging on his 'throne,' looking bored. He is leaning on the right arm of the throne, chin resting on his hand with one leg crossed over the other.

"Yes," Yggdrasill says. "How is Skye progressing with her training?"

It had been almost three weeks since Kratos and Yuan had started training Skye. She was a quick learner, but took to magic easier than she did to the sword training, but she was becoming proficient enough in both. Kratos had noticed that while she was learning defense techniques easily, she was hesitant whenever it came to attacking. She seemed to not like the idea of hurting someone else, not that anything she could do would hurt Kratos. The idea was nearly laughable. However, she was becoming stronger and her reflexes were excellent.

Yuan had told Kratos that the girl's magical affinities seem to lie with wind. She was able to learn wind-based spells much easier than anything else, and fire was nearly impossible. They attributed her inability to effectively use fire spells to the psychological trauma of the events in Ozette and the death of her brother. Her unique mana signature seemed to have no effect on her magical or physical training for the moment.

After Kratos explained the situation to Yggdrasill they became quiet, Yggdrasill because he was contemplating the new information, and Kratos because he was waiting for blond angel to speak.

"I'm going to send the Oracle to Sylvarant's Chosen in a few days. I want you and Skye to accompany the Chosen on her journey to ensure that it is successful this time," he says quietly. "If there are any preparations you need to make I suggest you start making them."

Kratos raises an eyebrow. "Are you sure it's a good idea to send her on such a long assignment? You know that the Chosen's journey is a perilous one, and she's only just begun her training."

"Then I suppose she'll just have to learn while she's down there," Yggdrasill says with no room for argument. Kratos wonders what Yggdrasill is hoping to accomplish with this new turn of events.

"Bring Skye here. There are things we need to discuss."

Kratos leaves the room.

-0-0-0-

Skye is in her room making some lunch when she hears a knock at the door. She can't leave the stove at the moment because she doesn't want to burn the food that's almost done cooking, so she calls out for whoever it is to come in. She turns around and sees that it's Kratos.

"Hey. You need something?" she asks. "I'm kind of busy making some lunch but you can have some if you want."

Kratos walks into the kitchen area incredulously. He's never seen her actually cook anything before, she usually just eats sandwiches or heads into the cafeteria, but he has to admit it smells good. "What are you making?"

"Chicken stir-fry. You want a bowl?" she asks with a smile.

He walks over next to her to look at the stove. It doesn't look too bad. "It looks good. I'd like that," he says.

"Alright. I'll warn you now though; I've never made it before. So I hope it ends up being as good as it looks," she says as she stirs it up a bit and goes to grab two bowls. She fills them both up and, after grabbing two forks, hands some food to Kratos and sits down at the table.

"So what is it that you needed?" she asks before she begins to eat. She did surprisingly well, she thinks. She was never a very good cook and Mistral did most of the cooking when he was home.

"Yggdrasill wants to speak with you. I came to bring you to him."

She thinks about this as they continue eating. She has hardly seen Yggdrasill since she came here, so she wonders what he might want to talk to her about. It's not that she doesn't like the man; he just seems too busy to want to concern himself with her, and she doesn't seek him out herself for fear of bothering him.

They finish eating and she takes the bowls over to the sink and washes them and the forks they used. "I wonder what he wants," she says hoping for a clue.

"You'll have to wait for him to tell you," Kratos says.

She dries the dishes and puts them back in the cabinet and the forks into the drawer. "Well, let's go then," she says as she turns around with a small smile. Kratos nods. They head for Vinheim, and as they walk she thinks about what life has been like for her for the past couple of weeks. At first, things were difficult and it was hard for her to get comfortable here. She's starting to get to know the other three seraphim better though. It's hard not to when she spends nearly all her time with one of them. She knows that behind Yuan's sarcasm-laced words and curt comments when he's instructing her that he's usually just trying to help her, and at rare times he'll even show her something resembling kindness. She's also begun to be able to read Kratos' expressions, but only when he allows her to. Sometimes, he's as stoic and cold as a rock – those times she can't read him at all.

But Yggdrasill is a whole other matter. She hasn't had the chance to talk to him as much as she has with Kratos and Yuan. She wants to, though. The man is intriguing, to say the least. She will admit though, that over the past few weeks she's begun to care about these men. She might go so far as to say that she considers them friends. For most of the time she'd been "living" here, she'd felt a bit out of place, but now she's beginning to see it as her home. It's not just a place she lives anymore.

They arrive at the teleporter to Vinheim and step onto it. She can't get used to the feeling of using it, and doesn't like it. It feels a bit like she's being deconstructed and pulled through a tunnel, only to be dropped abruptly at the end. It's uncomfortable. They continue up the stairs and through the door.

When they arrive in the throne room, Yggdrasill is standing in front of his throne with his back to them staring up into the purple sky of Derris-Kharlan. Skye thinks that he looks almost peaceful, if it's possible in this setting. She doesn't really want to disturb him, but Kratos speaks up while she's hesitating.

"I've brought the girl," he says.

"I have a name," Skye mutters under her breath. She's ignored.

"Excellent," Yggdrasill says. He turns around and looks at Skye, his ocean-blue orbs meeting Skye's light blue. "Come, walk with me," he says as he holds out an arm.

_Well this is different, _Skye thinks. What she says is "Okay."

Skye accepts the offer, wrapping her arm around his own. Immediately there is a flash of light and she feels the same feeling that she gets when she uses the teleporter, but different. If she had to compare them she would say that it's like the difference between red grapes and green grapes; they're both sweet fruits and they have similar looks, but they just aren't quite the same.

She sees trees! She's standing on grass! There's a light breeze and she looks over to Yggdrasill. His hair is moving slightly in the breeze, and he's looking off into the distance towards what looks like a small village.

_So much for going on a "walk," _she thinks. "Where are we?"

"Sylvarant," he replies. "On the outskirts of Iselia. The Chosen will be receiving the Oracle within a few days, and I think that aiding the Chosen on her journey is the perfect assignment for you."

Skye gapes at him. "Already? Isn't that kind of a large task to trust me with?"

"Kratos will be going as well," he explains.

"Okay… but what are we doing in Iselia right now?" she asks, confused.

"You don't appreciate being around nature again? I was under the impression you didn't care much for Derris-Kharlan," he says smirking, sapphire eyes amused. "Something about how you can never tell what time it is, and how the 'damn purple sky never changes'?"

Skye blushes a bit. She was going to have a serious talk with Kratos and Yuan about not repeating the embarrassing things she says. It did earn her a clock for her room, though. "Oh, so you heard about that, huh? It's not that I don't like Derris-Kharlan… After all, it's my home now; it's just that it's a hard transition to make. I admit, I did miss Aselia. It's nice to see some trees. Thank you for bringing me here."

"You're welcome," he says. There's another flash of light and then he's standing there in normal traveler's clothes, hair now tied back in a dark ribbon in a practical way. "Why don't we go see if we can catch a glimpse of the Chosen?"

-0-0-0-

After walking down to the village, Yggdrasill and Skye just wandered around for a little bit, eventually finding a shop near the middle of the village that was also functioning as a small inn and sitting down at a table inside, next to a window. The village was actually larger than Skye had thought from first glance. It was a quiet bustle of activity, with children playing in the streets, shopkeepers doing business, and some people farming on the outskirts. Yggdrasill had already showed her who the Chosen was, although he warned her not to approach the girl. She couldn't take the chance of being recognized later when she had to come back with Kratos.

"So that girl is going to save her world? She seems so young," Skye comments to Yggdrasill. The Chosen is a small blond girl, looking somewhere between fifteen and eighteen. They can see her from the window, and she seems to be hanging around with a teen around her age wearing red, and a smaller boy with silver hair. They're laughing and the teen in red takes off chasing after the silver haired boy after something he seems to have said. The blond Chosen just laughs, following after them at a slower pace. The three seem to be good friends.

"She's sixteen," he says.

Skye thinks that it's a heavy burden for a girl who's practically a child to carry. Skye remembers being sixteen. Although she's not much older than that now, at twenty, she has matured mentally since she was sixteen. She didn't think she would've been able to handle the duty that the Chosen bears at that age.

Almost as if he could read her mind Yggdrasill says, "I would advise you not to feel too much sympathy for her. It will make the journey harder than it needs to be. The Chosen will go through many trials on her way to becoming an angel, and though not pleasant, they are all necessary."

"No promises there, but I'll do my best," Skye says. They are quiet for a few moments, before Skye thinks that maybe she should use this opportunity to get to know this man a little better.

"So, Yggdrasill, what do you like to do for fun, other than whisking strange girls away to giant purple comets?" she says jokingly, not really expecting an answer from the fairly serious man. He may not be as serious as Kratos, but she's never really seen him crack any jokes like Yuan occasionally does.

"Panpipes," he says.

Skye's mouth opens in a bit in shock and she raises her eyebrows. "Really?" she says.

He nods, bangs swishing a little as he does so, but doesn't elaborate.

She imagines him sitting at the base of a tree somewhere with the wind blowing gently, eyes closed as he plays. "Interesting," Skye says.

Yggdrasill wonders what she's thinking as he stands up from his chair and says, "We should leave. We've been here too long. People might remember you when you come back."

Skye is confused by his sudden change of mood but rises as well and they leave the shop and begin to make their way out of the village. They walk in silence, Yggdrasill always staying a few steps ahead of her and walking a bit faster than her. When they've gotten far enough away that no one will see them, Yggdrasill grabs her upper arm a bit harshly compared to the friendly way they had linked arms on the way to Iselia, but not hard enough to hurt her, and they teleport back to Vinheim appearing outside the throne room. Yggdrasill is back in his regular clothes.

He drops her arm and walks into the room and shuts the doors. She stands there for a few moments, trying to figure out what just happened. She then hears footsteps behind her, and turns around to find Kratos there.

"Where did he take you?" he asks.

"Iselia. We saw the Chosen," she says. "She's so young and normal. It seems crazy that a girl her age is going to regenerate Sylvarant," Skye says, a bit in awe. "After she becomes an angel, is she going to live here with us? It might be nice to not be the only girl around," she says half-jokingly.

"… We'll most likely be headed there in a couple of days. If there's any preparing you need to do, do it soon," he says his expression unreadable as he ignores her and walks past her into the throne room.

_What is with these guys today?_

-0-0-0-

"Do you not intend to tell her the full truth about the Chosen's journey?" Kratos asks the blond angel. He knows that the girl will be upset when she learns the full reality of it.

"No," Yggdrasill says quietly.

"Why?"

"She's not ready to hear it."

Kratos agrees with him but says as a warning, "She will most likely find out while we're on the journey." He doesn't know why Yggdrasill wants to wait, but he'll go along with it for now since he knows that she will find out eventually. As long as he's not the one who has to tell her, he isn't really concerned with the details of how she learns of it.

Yggdrasill is silent, not giving away any of his thoughts on the matter.

-0-0-0-

Skye decides to go find Yuan; she doesn't want to go back to her room and be alone yet. She makes her way to Yuan's place, because if he wasn't there she figured she would have almost no hope of finding him. She knocks on his door and waits for a response. After a few moments he opens the door.

He raises one eyebrow as he notices exactly who has appeared at his door. "You lost?"

"No, just looking for someone to provide me with some semblance of normalcy," she says as she walks in.

Yuan steps aside to allow her in, but rolls his eyes. "Oh, please do come in. I'll prepare some tea," he says sarcastically.

"Well, you're still just as sarcastic as always, so all must be right with the world," she says with a grin as she walks over to sit on his couch, actually a little relieved. She didn't like the tension that Kratos and Yggdrasill were throwing out in waves. Now that she's here, however, she wasn't really sure what to do. She didn't want to actually bother Yuan, she just wanted some company. _But I guess if he didn't want to be bothered he wouldn't have answered the door in the first place, _she thinks.

"I went to Iselia today," she says. "With Yggdrasill," she adds when he sends her a questioning look. "I saw the Chosen."

"I see," Yuan replies.

"She seems rather… young. I expected someone older. When I think of someone who is supposed to go on some extensive journey to regenerate her world, I don't really think of a sixteen-year-old girl," she explains.

"If it makes you feel any better, Tethe'alla's Chosen is a man. He's twenty-two," Yuan explains. "He's quite popular with the ladies, as well," he says with a smirk.

Skye rolls her eyes and chooses to ignore the latter comment. "That's better than sixteen at least… It just seems unfair to place such a heavy burden on the shoulders of a child," she says solemnly.

Yuan isn't really sure what to say, so he changes the subject. "You're leaving for Sylvarant soon, but there's an important thing that you haven't learned yet," he says.

Skye has really started to enjoy all the training that Yuan and Kratos have been giving her, and she's eager at the prospect of learning something new. "What is it?" Skye asks, forgetting about the topic of conversation that they were on previously as her eyes light up in excitement.

"How to use your enhanced angel senses," he explains. "Why don't I teach you now? You might need them while you're on the journey."

Skye accepts immediately. She spends much of the rest of the evening learning about her new abilities from Yuan before retiring to her room and preparing for her departure to Sylvarant, even though she knows they probably won't leave for a couple of days yet.

She's excited to meet the Chosen. She's also ready to become an actual useful member of Cruxis. She knows that she owes a lot to them for saving her life, and she's ready to begin repaying them.

She sleeps well that night.

-0-0-0-

**A/N: **Thanks for reading. If you like the story leave me a review! Constructive criticism is very welcome! :)


	6. Chapter 5

**A/N: **Sorry for the long wait. Real life stuff happened, and then I was having some problems with this chapter. I'm still not feeling to great about it. Gah! Next chapter will be better, I promise!

Also, thank you to everyone who has reviewed, favorited, and followed this story! It means a lot. All my love goes to you guys!

**Disclaimer:** Don't own ToS. *sob*

-0-0-0-

A mask of gold hides all deformities.  
**-****Thomas Dekker**

-0-0-0-

Skye had awoken at her usual time the next morning and after showering and getting dressed she made her way to find Kratos for her morning training. This had become her routine over the weeks since she'd arrived. She would always wake up at six, train with Kratos until eight or nine, go train with Yuan until lunch, and then the rest of her day was free to use as she pleased, though there wasn't much to do on Derris-Kharlan. She usually would just hang around with one of the other seraphim or wander through the various hallways and things learning her way around Vinheim and Welgaia. The latter only lasted for about a week and a half, however. She was quick about remembering where everything was.

She was puzzled when Kratos wasn't at their usual meeting place outside of the building they lived in. Skye decided that maybe he was just late, so she'd wait around for a little while. After all, he hadn't said anything about not training today, so she was sure that he'd show up. One thing that Skye has noticed about Kratos is that he seems to be reliable. If he says that he's going to do something, he does it.

…

After waiting around for twenty minutes, Skye decided that he wasn't coming. She started making her way back to her room, seeing no reason to wait around anymore. When she arrived at her room and walked in, she noticed a note on the floor. It looked like it had been slipped under her door. She must not have noticed it when she was leaving her room that morning. Kratos is always telling her that she needs to be more observant, and she almost smacks herself out of frustration over the fact that he's right. If the note were an enemy she would've been dead long ago at this point. She picks the note up, unfolds it, and begins to read it.

_Skye,_

_No training today. I have some things to prepare for the regeneration journey, but I'll be back this afternoon. Feel free to use the day however you wish._

_-Kratos_

The note is short and to the point, exactly what she would expect from Kratos. His handwriting is different than what she thought it would look like, however. He has a very elaborate style of writing, there are many curls and flourishes on the ends of his letters, and it's so beautiful she hardly wants to fold it back up for fear of ruining it. She had expected someone like Kratos to have handwriting that somewhat reflected his personality – plain and clear without much adornment.

Seeing as how her morning is now freed up, she isn't quite sure what to do with herself. There isn't much for her to do on Derris-Kharlan. Back home, whenever she didn't have anything to do, she would busy herself with cleaning the house, or sometimes she would draw or paint something. Here, however, the angels kept everything spotless and she didn't have any materials to create with.

After searching her mind for possible things to do with her morning, she remembers the awkward way she had left things with Yggdrasill yesterday. She still isn't sure how she upset him, but figures that she should go apologize anyway. She makes her way to Vinheim and enters the throne room, but is at a loss for the second time that day when she finds that Yggdrasill isn't there. He was almost always in the throne room, so she wasn't sure where to continue her search.

She walks back out of the throne room and down the stairs to the teleporter and takes it back to Welgaia. She decides to ask one of the lesser angels where she might find Yggdrasill. She hates conversing with them, but she knows that they could probably tell her where he is.

"Excuse me," she says as she walks up to one of the angels. All of the angels are rather androgynous-looking, but this one seems to be male. He has shoulder length hair the color of young leaves, and dark blue eyes.

"Lady Skye, what do you need?" he replies in a nearly monotone voice. That's probably the thing that unnerves her most about the angels – the way they speak. There are many things that angels don't require, breath being one of them. They only breathe when they need to speak, and they don't breathe between words, so it all comes out a bit strange sounding. The only way she could really describe it is that it's very precise and artificial sounding; perhaps it could be described as almost mechanical.

"Would you happen to know where Yggdrasill is right now?" she questions, trying not to sound as uncomfortable as she feels. Lesser angels may not have feelings, but Skye doesn't want to appear rude or offend someone anyway, even if it's only for her peace of mind rather than for their benefit. Just because she doesn't always act like a proper lady doesn't mean she doesn't know how to. Her brother brought her up right, after all.

"Lord Yggdrasill is in the library on the east wing of Vinheim," he answers.

"Thank you," she replies sincerely. Thanks to her exploring of Derris-Kharlan in her free time, she knows exactly where that is. Vinheim actually has two libraries, if you could call them that. They're actually just a couple of average-sized rooms with bookshelves lining the walls along with a couple of couches and a coffee table. One of the libraries is in the east wing, and the other is in the west. The rooms are identical – stone walls and floors with a rug in the middle of the room, red couches, and some lamps standing in various places around the space.

She reaches the door to the eastern library and pauses in front of it. She isn't sure how she wants to start the conversation, so she has to think about it for a moment. Then she quietly knocks on the door and walks in.

"I was wondering when you were going to come in. You've been standing out there for quite some time now," Yggdrasill says without looking up from the book he's reading. "Don't look so surprised," he says after looking up from the book with a neutral expression. "I have angel senses. Had you forgotten? I heard you walk up to the door."

Skye is a bit discomfited. "I hadn't really thought about it. I'm still not used to the whole angel thing," she admits.

"Understandable," Yggdrasill says with a nod. "After all, everyone else here went through the angel transformation awake and aware. You went through it in your sleep and just woke up this way. It's understandable that it would take some getting used to. Especially remembering that everyone else here is an angel, too."

"I really should remember things like this though," she scolds herself. "Kratos is always telling me how I'm not observant enough, and Yuan criticizes me and says things about how I should think things through more."

"It's good to know that you're learning something," Yggdrasill says. "What is it you came to see me for?"

Skye had nearly forgotten. "I came to apologize for yesterday. I'm sorry if something I said made you uncomfortable, I hadn't meant for that to happen," she laments sincerely.

Yggdrasill is quiet for a moment and Skye can't tell what he's thinking. "Don't fret over it," he finally says. "It was nothing," he continued, his tone suggesting finality of the subject.

She walks over and sits on the couch next to him, but leaves some space in between them. She recognizes the book he is reading and realizes that it's one that her mother used to read to her and Mistral and tells him so.

"How did your mother get her hands on an elven storybook?" he questions.

"She was an elf," she answers. "She lived in Heimdall until I was born."

"I see," he says quietly. "Why did she wait to leave until after you were born, and not your brother? I understand that he was a half-elf, too."

"I'm not really sure," she says. "She was already being ostracized after the birth of my brother, but they still were allowing her to stay at that time. When I was born, they exiled her. That's all I know."

"Perhaps it had something to do with your father," he muses.

She had often wondered that herself. "I wouldn't know, I never met the man," she says quietly.

There's a pause in conversation, and Yggdrasill looks back to the book thoughtfully. "This was my sister's book," he says, broaching a slightly uncomfortable subject as if to make up for prompting her to bring up her own uncomfortable story.

She smiles and says, "Martel, right? She must've been an amazing woman, helping to end the war and all - certainly worthy of sharing a name with the Goddess."

"She was," he says softly. "She's also the one who gave me the panpipes I mentioned. She passed away soon after, however."

"I see," Skye says. She understands now why he was uncomfortable yesterday, and regrets raising the subject. Especially since now she's started to think about her brother as well.

She's starting to feel a little awkward again. "I should… get going. It's almost time for me to meet with Yuan," she explains.

Yggdrasill nods and she gets up to leave the room. She pauses in front of the door. "I'm sorry," she apologizes, turning to look at him.

He doesn't say anything for a few moments. When he finally replies, she's confused by what comes out of his mouth. "Mithos," he says, expression guarded.

"Excuse me?" she replies, confused.

"My name," he says nonchalantly. "Use it from now on."

She smiles. It seems the awkward conversations she'd started weren't for nothing. "Alright then, Mithos," she says before walking out.

-0-0-0-

Mithos lets out a small sigh of frustration after the girl is gone, setting his book aside. He's almost certain that the reason for her strange mana signature lies in her parentage, but it seems that he'll find no more in the way of answers from her. He'd tried various methods of getting clues from her already. He'd tried to make her more comfortable around him, he'd tried befriending her, and he'd even tried sharing some of his own past, but it seems that the girl simply didn't know the answers that he was looking for. It seems he'd have to start looking elsewhere for the answers he seeks.

Although he had begun to attempt to befriend the girl mainly to find out the most advantageous way for him to use her, he had truly begun to enjoy her company (not that he'd ever admit it to anyone). The girl was one of the only people that he'd met who didn't judge him for his misdeeds (even though she didn't truly know all of them), and she was unswervingly loyal - almost to a fault. She wasn't loyal out of guilt or pity like Kratos and Yuan were, though, even though he knew they tried to hide it. This was different. She truly wanted to serve him, just because she was grateful.

Or maybe it was something different altogether.

He wondered what she'd think when she finds out the truth about Cruxis and Martel. Not that it would really matter.

He was going to bring his sister back – no matter what.

-0-0-0-

Skye had gone to find Yuan not long after her conversation with Mithos, and had been training with him for the past hour or so. She was feeling confident today, so they had worked on getting her through some simple fire magic. She was getting better at it, but she still was uncomfortable using it. After a particularly badly aimed spell that caught the end of Yuan's cloak on fire, he had told her that they were done for the day. She was embarrassed, but also happy to be done. She didn't like fire magic. The idea of using the element that killed her brother… it was just hard for her.

After apologizing and promising to make it up to Yuan by cooking a meal for him sometime (which he scoffed at and told her she owed him something better than that, he knew what kind of an inexperienced cook she was!), they headed back to Yuan's office for awhile. It had become a routine of theirs to just hang around with each other after her training was done most days. They didn't always even speak, just sort of occupied the same space sometimes. Skye didn't really like being alone in Welgaia. The city was just… cold and unfeeling. Yuan seemed to understand that, and though he never commented on it, he allowed her to hang about anyway. It was sort of an unspoken understanding, and she was grateful.

Yuan had gone into his bedroom to do something about his cloak, and as he was gone Kratos walked into the office with a large leather bag filled with something, and a second sword sheathed and hanging across his back. He sees Skye and walks over to her, taking off the sword and handing it to her and setting the large bag on the couch next to her.

"What's all this?" she asks, voice full of surprise.

"Some proper equipment. You'll need it on the journey," he explains.

The first thing she inspects is the sword he had placed in her hands. She unsheathes it and sets the sheathe beside her, holding the blade in her hands. The sword is simple, but also very beautiful. It seems to be a plain steel sword, and the hilt is a royal blue color with a silver cross section where the hilt meets the blade embedded with a single sapphire. She runs her hand along the blade and earns herself a small cut that was bleeding before she had even registered that it happened – it's definitely well-sharpened. It's also a lot lighter than the blade Kratos had given her to use for training.

"This sword is beautiful," she says slightly in awe. "Thank you."

"I had it made for you by a dwarf near Iselia. I thought you would be a more effective fighter with something that suits your abilities more. You aren't as strong as I am, and the sword you were using was customized for me. This one is much lighter, and should suit you better because your aptitudes seem to lie more with speed than strength," he explains.

"I see," she says as she re-sheathes it. She reaches over to the leather bag and empties it, looking at its former contents. There is some lightweight leather armor that seems to be worn on the upper body, thin enough to be worn under her clothing, however, as well as a small silver shield. There are also a few gels and a small pouch with some gald in it that looks like it can be tied to her belt.

Yuan had come back into the room while she was gawking over her new things. "Why don't you try on the armor and practice with your new sword?" he suggests.

Skye's face lights up with excitement at the prospect and she immediately looks to Kratos as if silently asking him for a training session. His face adopts a slightly amused expression and he says, "Alright, but we'll be leaving tomorrow, so don't tire yourself out too much."

She jumps up from the couch, new belongings in hand, and proceeds to drag him out of the room by the arm as she is talking and thanking him animatedly.

Yuan is muffling some laughter at the sight as they leave.

-0-0-0-

**A/N: **So what do you guys think? Drop me a review! :)


	7. Chapter 6

**A/N: **Oh gosh. I am so sorry for the long wait. Life was just kicking my ass there for awhile, and I've had a lot of things on my plate to deal with. BUT! This chapter is my longest one yet, and I actually think I did a pretty good job with it. Guess what!? We get to meet Colette, Lloyd, and Genis in this one! Anyway, thank you to my reviewers, people who have favorited, and people who have followed this story! And even thanks to anyone who just reads silently (I don't always review either, guys! xD). Enjoy!

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Tales of Symphonia. I don't think I could be as creative with the plot twists and things as they were. Nor could I create such beautiful characters as Kratos and Yuan xD

* * *

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Nothing is predestined.

The obstacles of your past can become the gateways that lead to new beginnings.  
**-Ralph Blum **

-0-0-0-

Mithos was seated on his throne in Vinheim listening to a blond angel garbed in green, white, and elaborately adorned robes prattle on about how he was so honored that the seraphim had chosen him to play the role of guardian angel to Sylvarant's Chosen. The man was starting to get on his nerves, however. How long did he intend to go on with his meaningless babble? Mithos was past displeased and was quickly moving into the territory of "annoyed." It wasn't so much that he was annoyed with the other blond man himself, just in the way that he continued to talk nonstop when Mithos was already past caring.

"I swear to you Lord Ygg-" the man started to say before being cut off.

"Remiel," Mithos interrupts. "Are you quite done? I have other things to attend to," he says, his sapphire eyes narrowing dangerously and his tone suggesting unpleasant things in Remiel's future if he doesn't comply.

Remiel immediately bows, realizing that he's starting to get on his leader's bad side – something quite dangerous indeed. "Y-Yes Lord Yggdrasill, of course," he manages before righting himself and quickly leaving the room and quietly shutting the double doors behind him.

Mithos sighs and rests his chin in one hand as he looks out into the violet sky of Derris-Kharlan as he thinks about the man who had just left. Remiel was always trying to get into his good graces, always doing anything Mithos even hints at in an effort to be promoted to the level of seraphim. Not that it would ever happen - it wasn't even possible. Even if Mithos were willing to indulge the other man, he could become a seraph in name only. The seraphim kept all their senses, and even developed enhanced ones, after the transformation. Ordinary angels lost certain things at the expense of gaining others. Remiel at least retained the capability for ambition, but the power that he was hoping to gain was nothing but a fallacy.

However, it made him a little more useful to Mithos than the rest of the angels were. If Mithos said jump, he wouldn't even pause to ask how high, he would merely do it to the fullest extent of his ability. Loyalty to that extreme was valuable.

Loyalty… it reminded him of another person who was just as valuable – Skye. She was as fiercely loyal as Remiel, perhaps even more so, but she didn't hope to gain anything from it. Remiel was "loyal" because he thought it would benefit him; he was purely selfish. The girl, however, appeared to be Remiel's complete opposite. She simply wanted to be useful to Mithos. She wanted nothing but to serve him in return for the salvation he had offered her when Ozette was burning down around her. However, she wasn't blinded by her loyalty in the way that Remiel was, because she wasn't nearly as ambitious as the blond angel. She was the type of person whose loyalty would make her strive to be something better, for herself and for others. It was not likely to make her blindly support someone in an attempt for personal gain.

She also showed great compassion, and rarely passed judgment upon other people. She rarely put herself first, and was always trying to be close to the other seraphim. She was always trying to get in extra training time with Kratos, and everyone could see that she was trying to impress him and gain his approval. Although her skills were not yet great, Kratos was the type of man who fully appreciated dedication, so those two were getting along splendidly.

She was always joking around with Yuan and trying to lighten his mood and get him to smile genuinely, rather than sarcastically, which was quite a rare occurrence for him. They could also be spotted often just sitting together silently, no verbal communication needed between the two. They seemed to almost have their own unspoken language. It was similar to what the other three men had with each other, but this was something that only she and Yuan could understand. Perhaps it had something to do with the fact that he was giving her magical training. Magic was a bit of a relative practice rather than something precise. Sure, there were certain basics about it that related to everyone, but for the most part it was something that was little different for every practitioner. It required him to understand how she thinks in order for him to instruct her effectively, and perhaps that had promoted some sort of mental or overall understanding between the two.

When it came to Mithos she would just lend him her company. She would tell him stories or occasionally ask him to tell her some, making sure to stay away from uncomfortable subjects unless he initiated them first (he didn't, but he wouldn't deny the fact that the sincerity behind her intentions was refreshing – he knew how most of the others in Cruxis regarded him). Sometimes they just sat together in the eastern library in silence as they would read something. Occasionally, Skye would sit next to him and read whatever he was reading over his shoulder. _That_ was a bit uncomfortable for Mithos, but after hearing about the way she would do that with her brother he thought it would be a bit harsh to tell her no. After all, he didn't outright dislike the girl, and he could understand that she just wanted to be able to do something that was familiar to her. The feeling of nostalgia was something he understood well.

Mithos wondered if perhaps she was lonely, or maybe simply afraid of losing the last bit of what she could consider important to her. Regardless, it seemed she had a way of becoming close to the three of them without much thought or effort needing to be expended. Mithos recognized that this was a rather precarious game of chess he was playing. While he was certain that Remiel was merely a pawn to be sacrificed at any moment, perhaps in return for a queen, he was uncertain which piece Skye would prove to be at this point. He didn't think that she was a mindless pawn, but didn't think that she could quite be ranked with such importance as a rook or bishop quite yet. Perhaps a knight – she was unpredictable and a knight had different choices in the way it could be used. The only other piece that was as unpredictable was the queen, after all.

There was one thing he was sure of, however. He would need to take care to ensure that the manipulator did not become the one manipulated.

-0-0-0-

When Skye was a child, her mother would read her and her brother adventure stories. Damsels in distress, daring knights, princes and princesses, she'd heard them all. The thought that soon she was going to be on her very own adventure was exciting – but also bittersweet. She knew she wouldn't be seeing this place for awhile, and that also meant that she wouldn't be seeing Yuan and Mithos. Kratos, at least, was going with her. She wouldn't be completely alone, but she knew that she'd miss her other newfound friends and fellow Cruxis members. Over the past few weeks, she'd become rather close to all of them and even just the idea of not seeing them every day was a strange one at this point after she had become so accustomed to spending the majority of her time with them.

However, on the bright side of things, she would get off of Derris-Kharlan for awhile. She'd finally get to be around _nature _again. While she had grown accustomed to life on the comet, she still missed Aselia terribly. She didn't like the artificialness of Derris-Kharlan. She wanted to feel the warm sun on her skin, and smell the scent of flowers and trees on the warm breeze as it moved through her hair. However, while she preferred to see trees and grass and a blue sky when she stepped outside, she was starting to realize that she might miss Derris-Kharlan after all. Or maybe it wasn't so much the place that she'd miss, but the individuals who inhabited it – specifically the other two seraphim who weren't going to be accompanying her. Yuan, Kratos, and Mithos were the only people that she really had left, after all. Her blood-family were all dead, surely, and she didn't have ties to anyone else.

Thinking of things that she missed… Made her think about how she missed Mistral. She missed his expressive and ever changing gray eyes. She missed his broad smiles and his teasing. She just missed _him._ She always thought that when she was finally ready to have her own adventure, he'd be by her side. They'd travel the world together. That couldn't happen now, but she'd travel twice as much for him. After all, she knew that there were two worlds now, not just Tethe'alla. She would let him see through her eyes all that those worlds could show her.

She decided that it was about time to stop brooding in her room and just prepare for the day ahead. Dwelling on things that she couldn't change wasn't going to get her anywhere. After showering and changing into her clothes she tied her hair back. She took a look at herself in the mirror. Outwardly, she looked about the same as she always had. Her long silvery hair was tied back into a loose braid, bangs framing her sky blue eyes and pale face nicely. She preferred to wear her hair down, but she had learned that it was much easier to fight without it getting in her way, so she compromised with a loosely worn braid. She was wearing her blue and gray themed outfit instead of the black and gold one today, opting to leave off the jacket as well, and she was currently in the process of putting on her new equipment. She decided to leave off her jacket because it wouldn't fit right over the armor anyway and she attached her sword to her belt, as well as attaching her small shield to her opposite hip, easily in a position to be grabbed and put onto her arm, and took another look at herself in the mirror.

She realized how much she had changed over the time she'd been here. It wasn't so much a physical change (although she was beginning to build a bit of muscle – not too noticeable but there all the same) she hadn't been here quite long enough for a large change like that, but the way she carried herself was different. There was more resolve in her sky blue eyes, and she looked more confident than she had before.

Back in Ozette, she didn't do much other than her work at the inn and taking care of her and Mistral's home. Whenever she had leisure time she did rather domestic-type things – cleaning, drawing, reading, and etcetera. She didn't go out much, and she was actually rather timid. She honestly didn't even associate with most of the people of the village. Half-elves weren't well-respected, to put it mildly, in Tethe'alla. She had avoided contact with the other village members as much as possible. It was a sharp contrast to the type of life she'd been living here. Since she came here, every day was devoted to training her body and her mind. She was learning to become a force to be reckoned with, and it gave her confidence. She wasn't looked down on for being a half-elf, and before they became angels, almost everyone here were half-elves themselves. The only person she'd actually met so far that was human was Kratos. Well… not that he was really "human" anymore, but still. She wondered how exactly a human would've come to associate with a group filled with mostly half-elves in the first place. She knew that basics, that he had helped Mithos and Yuan end the Kharlan War, but that was really all she knew. She had noticed that he certainly didn't seem to discriminate against half-elves the way most humans did, though.

Moving away from that train of thought, she looks over to the clock and sees that it's a little after five-thirty. She decides that she should probably go get some breakfast. She didn't know what the conditions on Sylvarant were like, but she was sure that she didn't want to start some long journey on an empty stomach. She walked over to the door that leads out of her quarters but stops in front of it and turns back around to face the room. She pauses for a few moments, eyes taking in her surroundings with a lingering gaze as if to say goodbye to the place. She probably wouldn't be seeing it again for quite awhile, and it really had come to feel like home to her.

After a few moments she opens up the door and walks out, quietly closing it behind her. She makes her way through the winding corridors that she has long since become familiar with until she gets to the small cafeteria. The place is usually almost deserted, and this day is no different. The angels didn't actually need to eat, so the only reason the small facility was here was for the benefit of the seraphim. Skye grabs some food and makes her way to a table, but before she can begin eating Yuan walks into the room carrying a small bag.

"Here," he says simply, extending the bag to her.

Skye arches an eyebrow. "It seems like everyone wants to give me gifts lately. What's the occasion?" she jokes as she takes the bag from him, abandoning her food for the moment.

"Can't have you going off and getting yourself killed on your first mission, can we? Besides, Kratos is making me look bad. If he's going to reward you with new equipment before you leave, I should as well," he says lightheartedly as he watches her take the leather bag.

Skye unties the cord that's keeping the bag closed and dumps its contents on the table. Inside the bag was a green ring with some strange symbols engraved on it, a necklace of a strange emblem in the shape of a six-pointed star surrounded by a circle that was hanging from a leather cord, and a small, simple, dagger. She widens her eyes a bit in surprise. She wouldn't need to purchase any equipment at all for this journey thanks to Yuan and Kratos. If she was honest with herself she wouldn't know where she would have gotten the gald to purchase any anyway. Mithos wasn't exactly paying her for her service and she hadn't had a chance to collect any on her own yet.

"Thank you," she says gratefully.

She picks up the ring to inspect the symbols on it, but quickly realizes that they're in a language she can't read. "What do these symbols mean?" she asks.

"They're elven. The ring is engraved with the word 'magic.' It will amplify the power of your spells. The necklace acts as a focus to help you cast more quickly," he explains. "And the dagger is just a dagger," he continues with a shrug. "They're just things that I acquired long ago that I have no need for anymore. I might as well give them to someone who can put them to some use. They might help you out if you find yourself in some trouble and Kratos isn't around to help you."

"Thanks again, Yuan. I really appreciate it," she says sincerely. "I'd even give you a hug if I didn't think you'd try to break my arm or something," she adds in a somewhat sarcastic tone as she puts on the ring and necklace. She removes the sword from her belt, opting instead to attach it to her back, and puts the dagger where her sword used to be. She also moves the shield to her back over her sword, but with the hilt being tilted it was still easily reachable.

He laughs at her comment. "You're not as stupid as you look, then."

"Hey!" she exclaims as she drops her mouth open in mock offense and gives him a light punch to the shoulder. "Shouldn't you be a little nicer? I might die or something on this journey!" she jokes.

"If only it were that easy to get rid of you," he says sardonically but not seeming to really mean it. "I have some business to attend to, so I need to get going."

"Alright, I guess I'll see you when this whole thing is over," she says a bit dejectedly, remembering exactly what she was leaving for and what she had to do. She still wasn't feeling too comfortable with sending the young Chosen on her journey. She would do it, though. She wasn't going to go back on her word; she would serve Mithos faithfully in whatever way he wished, even if she didn't always like what she had to do.

Yuan picks up on her lack of enthusiasm and he knew exactly why she felt that way. Unlike her, he knew the entire reason for the journey, but he didn't like it either. He intended to do something about it, however. He couldn't reveal that to anyone else right now, though.

"I'm sure it'll be over sooner than you think. At the most it should only take a couple of months," he says. "I'll give you one piece of advice – don't let your emotions interfere with your duty," he adds seriously.

"I'll do my best," she says, trying to insert some resolve into her voice. "You know, you sound like an experienced soldier giving advice to a rookie," she adds thoughtfully.

"At one time I was a soldier."

Skye is surprised at this. "Interesting," she muses. "Tell me more." The statement comes out sounding more like a question than a request, however.

"There's not really time for a long explanation, but I was actually the first half-elf to ever achieve a position of importance in the Sylvaranti military during the Kharlan War."

"Impressive. I knew you were a talented fighter, but I didn't know exactly where that experience came from," she says.

Yuan nods. "Now you know. Also, I may not be around to train you anymore, but you need to keep working on it on your own. Slacking could get you killed from here on out. You need to keep your magical abilities sharp just as you would with a blade."

"I will," she replies, her resolution strong and aflame in her eyes.

Yuan sees this and nods in silent approval as he turns to leave and Skye turns back to her meal.

-0-0-0-

Yuan arrived back in his office and was currently speaking to his second-in-command of his Renegade force via hologram. Yuan was standing in front of his desk, and the brunette man in the hologram was seated at a desk with a serious look on his face.

"Prepare a small, but adept force. The Oracle will be arriving later today so you should start heading for Iselia immediately," Yuan says seriously.

The other man ran a hand through his spiky hair that was short and styled back in such a way that it left his pointed ears exposed. He emitted a small sigh of exasperation and uttered a 'yes sir.'

Yuan raises an eyebrow. "Is there a problem, Botta?"

"I'll be sure to carry out your orders, as always, sir," Botta replies.

"I'm certain that you will," Yuan says with a look prompting him for the reason for his hesitation.

"I just wish there were some other way. She's just a girl," Botta says with a tone of regret. He never had enjoyed the amount of killing that they had to do, even though he understood that it was sometimes necessary.

"This is the only way to be certain that we will be successful. Even if we could convince her to stop the foolish journey, Yggdrasill would still be able to forcibly use her to make her into the vessel for Martel. We can't let her live. There's no other way," Yuan explains.

"I understand," Botta replies. "I'll prepare the men. We'll be there by noon."

"Good," Yuan says. "And Botta? Kratos and Skye will be arriving to guard the Chosen. Refrain from seriously injuring the girl. There's a chance that she could come to be an advantage for us later, I don't want her killed. She's still an enigma, both to Yggdrasill and to me. Until I can uncover more about the situation I don't want anything to happen to her."

Yuan regretted the way everyone Skye was surrounded by were attempting to use the girl. Yggdrasill surely had something planned, so Yuan would need to counteract that, and who knows what Kratos may be thinking. Kratos and he weren't as close as they used to be, regrettably, and he definitely couldn't share his plans with Kratos anymore now that he was a traitor to Cruxis. He could feel that Skye was going to be an important variable in the events that would unfold, but in what way was something he had no means of knowing yet.

-0-0-0-

After breakfast, Skye didn't have any other preparations to make so she decided it was time to find Kratos so they could leave. The place he would most likely be was his room, so she decided to head over there. As she made her way back to the building that they lived in, she was stopped by a smooth voice calmly calling out to her from behind.

She turns around looking slightly confused. "Mithos?" she questioned aloud. He was walking towards her at a sedate pace, with a calm and relaxed look on his face, slightly smiling. He didn't usually seek her out for anything; it was usually the other way around. If he ever needed to see her for some reason, however, he usually just grabbed the nearest angel and told them to inform her.

"I am glad to have caught you before you left," he replied, coming to a stop in front of her. "I have something for you," he continues. He reaches out and takes her right hand in his and raises it up so that her palm is out, he then places his other hand over it and she feels him place something in her palm. "Call it a good-luck charm," he says as he removes his hands from hers.

Skye looks down at her palm and what she sees is a bracelet. It is beaded with smallish turquoise colored beads and every few spaces there is a bead with a symbol on it. Each symbol is different, and there are nine of these types of beads in all. She's struck by a feeling of familiarity. Hadn't she seen this somewhere before…?

Skye slips the bracelet onto her left wrist before looking up at Mithos. "Thank you," she says sincerely. "I'm sure I'll need it," she admits.

Mithos smile widens slightly. "Well then I made the right choice in giving it to you," he says. "I am sure that you will do fine, however."

_I wish I was as confident in my skills as he is_, Skye thinks. "I'll do my best," she says with a nod and a smile. "I was just on my way to find Kratos and set out for Iselia now, actually."

"Ah, then I'll leave you to it," he says.

She smiles and they say their goodbyes. She takes a look at the bracelet again after Mithos had left and then remembers where she'd seen it. When Mithos first came to her in his younger form, he had three bracelets like these – two on his right arm and one on his left. She gets a strange, but not entirely bad, feeling when she realizes that she's wearing something of his. She'll have to make sure to take care of it.

She finally makes it to Kratos' door and knocks quietly. The door opens shortly after, and Kratos looks her over as he takes in the new additions to her equipment. He doesn't comment on anything, however. He's already seen the other things before and knows where they came from. He does find it curious that they had been given to her, though.

"Ready to go?" he asks her.

"As ready as I'll ever be," she replies with a smile.

-0-0-0-

"Okay, so what's our story?" she asks Kratos. After he had changed into some different clothing, this outfit being purple with fewer belts and a plain steel sword rather than his usual Flamberge (which disappointed Skye, she loved watching him fight with the fiery blade. She thought it was a rather beautiful sword, actually, but he told her it was too memorable. It was important to try to retain some ability to be anonymous apparently), and double-checked his equipment they had headed down to Iselia – or rather, the outskirts of Iselia. They hadn't actually entered the village yet. Appearing right in the heart of the village wouldn't be very good for their cover, after all. Skye was going to miss this whole teleporting thing, though. From here on out they'd be walking everywhere on this journey. Ordinarily they would have had to have started all the way back at the Tower of Salvation, but Mithos had been kind enough to teleport them down near to Iselia. Kratos couldn't teleport like Mithos and Yuan could. They could both fly, but no one else could know that they are angels, so that could only be done away from the view of other people.

"We are mercenaries looking for a job," he replies simply from his place next to her as they approach the 'gate' to Iselia and the two militia-men guarding it. It really isn't much more than a wooden arch. Certainly not anything that would keep anyone who really wanted into the village out of it.

"That's it?" she says looking up at him with a raised eyebrow. She really thought that it would be some elaborate story that she'd have to remember.

"If they ask us anything else we'll make it up as we go."

"Alright," she replies. "I can do that."

They continue walking towards the village entrance when there is suddenly a bright flash and a column of light appears to the west extending up into the sky – or perhaps from the sky and down to the ground.

"We're a bit late, it seems," Kratos comments dryly.

As they approach the two men guarding the gate to the village, now with their backs turned looking toward the direction of the light, they overhear them talking. Apparently, from what Skye hears, that bright light is the indication that the Oracle is happening. One of them must hear them approach because he turns around and when he notices them approaching he quickly elbows his partner, who also turns back around and puts on a friendly but serious face.

"Welcome! What brings you to Iselia?" the first man says with a smile.

"Oh, we're just passing through," Skye says, returning the smile. "We're mercenaries, actually. Would you happen to know anyone who might require our services around here?"

The two men exchange a look and eye Skye doubtfully. They haven't really seen many women who were mercenaries, it seems, but after seeing Kratos they decide to give her the benefit of the doubt.

Just for good measure, Skye decides that maybe she should try a different method. "Although, this village looks pretty safe with capable-looking militia-men like you around," she says with a grin. If she didn't look much like a mercenary, maybe they'd be willing to give some information to a pretty girl instead.

Kratos inwardly sighs at her tactic.

"Well, perhaps you could ask the members of the Church. That bright light to the west is actually where you can find the Martel Temple. The Chosen is going to be receiving the Oracle today, apparently. That's what the light is. Perhaps they may want to contract someone for the journey," the second man says with a bit of a blush visible under his helmet and eyewear.

"Ah, I see! Well, gentlemen, thank you for the information. We'll head over there right now," she says, still grinning, as she walks past them into the village and Kratos follows after her, coming up beside her. Kratos places a hand to his face and shakes his head. Skye sees this and quietly says "What? It got us a quick excuse to head straight to the Temple."

"That it did," he replies with a nod.

They continue their walk through the village and it doesn't take them long to make it all the way through it. Once they pass through the village, they follow a dirt trail to the Temple. As they approach another winding trail leading up a hill to where the temple sits, they hear a distinct and almost rhythmic clanging noise and some shouting that could only be fighting.

Skye looks to Kratos, he acknowledges her with a nod and they quickly start to make their way up the trail. When they arrive, they see the three teens that are already familiar to Skye as the Chosen and her friends fighting a rather large man in a brown and green battle uniform who is wielding a large flail. There is also an elderly woman who looks like a priestess belonging to the Church being held back at sword point by two average sized men wearing uniforms matching the huge man currently battling the teens. Next to the two average men is also another brunette man with rather spiky long hair and pointed ears and a large, and rather unique, red sword who looks to be their leader, although he isn't wearing the uniform.

The Chosen and the younger silver-haired boy have already collapsed to their knees, the man being too strong for them, but the older boy in red is still attempting to fight him off and protect his friends. Kratos draws his sword and Skye realizes that it's her cue to do so as well. The brunette boy in red finally collapses and she and Kratos walk up in front of him as Skye draws her sword and shield getting into a battle stance.

"Get out of the way," Kratos directs to the boy. The Chosen and her friends give the two newcomers confused looks and Skye offers a smile before throwing herself into battle after Kratos.

Kratos approaches the large man and takes a swipe at him opening up a large gash on the man's bicep when the man quickly twists away. Skye is surprised by his speed. She assumed that since he was so large he would be a bit slower. The man gets ready to retaliate and Kratos jumps back. While the man is distracted with Kratos, Skye fires off a quick "Wind blade!" After she finishes casting she rushes in and slashes at the man with her sword, and as she does this Kratos backs off and begins casting healing spells on the three teens behind them.

The large man is rather angry by this point, and with a shout he spins around his flail before aiming it at Skye. She jumps back as she holds up her shield arm, and since she was mostly far enough away already the flail is deflected harmlessly from her shield. A red blur runs past her left side as the boy from earlier decides to take another go at the man with his twin swords, and a water spell rushes past her on the right. She looks back and notices that the younger boy is actually a mage. Kratos rushes past her and begins attacking the man along with the red-clothed teen and the blond Chosen comes up next to her and utters a quick 'thank you' before joining into the battle with her chakrams.

Skye turns back to the battle and with all five of them against just the one man, he quickly goes down. Seeing that they've been defeated, the strange rogues who had attacked the temple turn to flee. The two in uniform quickly pick the larger man up and drag themselves down the slope with their leader silently following behind at the same quick pace.

The Chosen and her younger companion collapse to their knees from exhaustion, but the older teen in red is still standing. All three of them are breathing heavily.

"Amazing!" the blond Chosen gets out in between breaths.

"These guys are incredibly strong!" her young silver-haired friend exclaims, wide-eyed.

At his younger friends exclamation the older boy seems a bit put off and replies with a stutter-laden "Y-yeah… I-I guess so…"

Skye's blue eyes fill with concern for the teens in front of her and does a quick once over on all of them. "Everyone okay?" she asks as she assesses their conditions from where she's standing.

"No one seems to be hurt," Kratos says after a moment in a tone that suggests that he wouldn't really care either way.

Kratos and Skye both sheathe their swords at the same time and put their shields back in place. Kratos crosses his arms and Skye places a hand on her hip. The red-clothed teen notices the Cruxis crystals on their hands.

"Are those exspheres?" he questions. He is ignored, however, when the priestess walks over to where the group has assembled and pulls the blond girl into a hug.

"How could I ever thank you for saving the Chosen? You have done a truly great deed today. Tell me how I might be able to repay you and I will gladly do it," the elderly woman says generously as she looks over at Skye and Kratos.

"I see. So this girl is the next Chosen," Kratos says, ignoring the woman's question.

The younger girl quickly perks up in surprise. "Ah, that's right!" she exclaims, as if she had forgotten something important. "I have to go accept the Oracle!" she finishes as she turns to the old woman. "Grandmother, I'm going to undergo the trial now," she explains as she moves out of the embrace.

The brunette boy looks confused as he asks "What trial?"

"The monsters, I assume. An evil presence radiates from inside this chapel," Kratos explains as he looks back towards the chapel's doors.

"That is correct," the priestess explains, everyone turns to look at her. "The Chosen is to receive judgment from heaven. There were priests that were meant to accompany her, but…" she trails off.

"What happened?" Skye prompts.

"They… fell at the hands of the Desians," the elderly woman hesitantly explains.

There is a quiet moment before the red-clothed teen quickly exclaims "Then I'll take on the job of protecting Colette!"

Kratos would laugh at this moment, if he were a man that did so. Alas, he was not, so he kept his humor on the inside.

"Lloyd? I would be uneasy with just you…" the elderly woman explains.

Kratos makes a nearly imperceptible movement when the woman says this. No one but Skye had noticed, and she probably wouldn't have if she hadn't known him as well as she does.

"Your name is Lloyd?" he asks nonchalantly.

"Yeah, but who are you to ask for my name?" the brunette teen says cheekily.

Kratos is silent for a moment as he regards the teen.

"…I am Kratos. This is my partner, Skye," he says as he gestures to her with one hand. "We're mercenaries. As long as you can pay us, we'll accept the job of guarding the Chosen," he explains, directing the last part towards the priestess.

"Under the circumstances, I'm afraid I have little choice in the matter. Please, be of service," she says.

"Looks like we've got ourselves a deal, then," Skye says as she smiles and looks to Kratos. He simply nods and they begin to turn towards the entrance to the Martel Temple.

They stop when they hear a certain brunette teen say "W-Wait! I'm going too!"

Skye exchanges a look with Kratos. She already knows what he's going to say, but she doesn't want to tell the eager teen herself.

"Lloyd, you'll only get in the way. Be a good boy and wait here."

Skye is shocked at the way Kratos explained it to the boy. She has to hold herself back from laughing.

"W-What did you say!?" Lloyd sputters, clearly insulted.

Skye does start laughing this time, but she covers her mouth with her hand and keeps it quiet. She can't do anything about the shaking of her shoulders, however.

Kratos, however, quite frankly didn't give a damn about the brunette teen's feelings.

"Did I not make myself clear?" he asks, rhetorically. "You're a burden. Go home."

At this point Colette must start feeling a bit bad for her friend, so she decides to speak up. "U-um… Mr. Kratos, would it be okay if we took Lloyd along, too?"

When he just looks at her she continues. "Please. I get nervous when he's not around."

At this point Skye is getting curious as to what his answer will be as well. She can tell that he's had enough of this situation and just wants to get started already.

"Kratos, we might as well. He seems like the type of kid to just follow us on his own anyway," Skye says.

Kratos looks from her to Lloyd, who looks back at him defiantly, and eventually says "You're a stubborn kid. Fine, do as you wish."

"I'll do just that," Lloyd responds. He looks to his silver-haired friend and says "Let's go, Genis!"

The boy, Genis, shakes his head but walks towards the group who then turn around and head for the chapel. "Lloyd, I figured you were going to say that."

"Of course!" Lloyd says, almost proudly.

Kratos just shakes his head and pinches the bridge of his nose. "This isn't a field trip, you know."

Skye just laughs. She doesn't even try to hide it this time.

-0-0-0-

* * *

**A/N:** And there is Chapter 6! Total of 6,382 words this time, guys! Phew. *wipes brow* Leave me a review to let me know what you think! OTL There hopefully won't be such a long wait for the next chapter T_T


	8. Chapter 7

**A/N: **Wow, has my life been hectic! After a road trip to West Virginia, I had lost my flashdrive and had to start this chapter over. That pretty much ruined most of my motivation to write. Then, I found my flashdrive again, only for more things to happen to pretty much bring my writing process to a halt. I apologize for the long wait, however. I'm still not entirely happy with this, but maybe I'll go back and fix it someday. I've wasted entirely too much time on this chapter and it's time to move on! Enjoy the chapter!

And P.S. – when you get to the part where Skye is looking at the symbol on the floor, if you don't understand the way I'm describing it, PM me and I'll send you a link to a couple of pictures to help (ffnet is always weird about links and stuff, or else I'd just put it here). If you think my description needs to be better, give me some constructive criticism, it's always welcome!

-0-0-0-

This path we choose is not the easiest to walk upon

And knowing that I am more eager to continue on

Because I know that when I reach the end

I'll be better than before

-**We Came As Romans**, _Searching, Seeking, Reaching, Always_

-0-0-0-

The Martel Temple wasn't quite what Skye had imagined it would look like. She had expected something a little nicer looking; perhaps with pews and some carpeting, maybe even candles, like she had heard the cathedral in Meltokio had. Although she wasn't expecting it to be quite as grand as Meltokio, because judging from the region the chapel was located in and from its outward appearance, it just wouldn't make sense for it to be so lavishly decorated. After all, the nearest village was Iselia and their economy was mostly dominated by farming. They didn't really have the need or the budget for extravagant decorations.

She hadn't expected it to be quite so dark and unadorned, and overall a bit ominous-looking, however.

The group had walked through the large wooden doors to the temple, Kratos and Colette in front, followed by Lloyd, with Genis and Skye bringing up the rear. Ascertaining from the way that Lloyd and Genis were looking around, they had never been into the chapel, either. Skye wonders how many times Kratos has been in here, however. After all, in the 4,000 years that he's been alive, surely he'd had to guide another chosen or two, right?

After the majority of the group had walked down the stairs into the foyer-like area, Skye closed the large, wooden double doors behind them and continued down the stairs as well, moving to stand near Kratos as she inspected the area. The room they were in was rather dark and a bit damp with a high, domed ceiling. There were torches lit in various places, spread out along the walls. More of them could also be seen in the hallways that three short staircases branching off from the room led to. The building itself seemed to be entirely made out of old stone, some of it crumbling off of the walls and leaving small pebbles littered throughout the room. In the middle of the room where everyone had gathered was a strange design on the floor. It was very complicated and elaborate.

To describe the symbol as simply as possible, it was made up of a few circles, a triangle, and three feathers. In the center of the symbol were two small filled-in spheres, one placed a few inches above its partner, which was an exact copy of the lower sphere. Surrounding the two spheres like a ring was a large circular ring. The ring and the shapes within it were just barely contained within a large triangle, whose three points protruded from it. For the most part, its three sides nearly melded with the circles' edges; the protruding angles created their own, smaller triangles, as well. Extending from the large inner-circle/the sides of the triangle were three feathers. The position of the feathers, if the symbol were compared an actual object, could be compared to a wind-mill; they looked as if they would spin. Encompassing all of this was one last large ring.

Skye's pondering of the room was interrupted by Lloyd, but she decides to ask Kratos about the symbol later.

"So this is what the inside of the temple is like," he exclaims to his friends and the two newcomers with a look of wonder on his face as he continues looking about the room.

Genis, who seems to be finished examining the room (and who wasn't nearly as excited as Lloyd) turns to Colette. "Colette, you've been in here many times, right?" he asks curiously.

The Chosen looks over to Genis, a thoughtful look in her blue eyes. "Yeah, but it seems different today. Er… Well, it _looks_ the same. I just meant that it feels different, I guess," she explains.

Skye thinks that the younger girl's explanation makes sense. After all, it probably wouldn't feel quite so… ominous in here, usually. Otherwise wouldn't it be rather uncomfortable (at the least) for the priests and the Chosen spend so much time in here? "Perhaps it has something to do with the trial," she muses to the group as she continues to look around. One of the things Kratos had taught her was the most important was to always know her surroundings so as to avoid giving the enemy any advantage over her, no matter where she was. She was already at a disadvantage, after all, being new to combat situations along with her rather petite frame. She always needed to be aware of how to use her surroundings to her advantage; knowledge would most certainly translate to power in her case.

"I sense the presence of monsters. Don't let your guard down," Kratos says softly. Skye interprets it as him taking notice that she was following what she'd been taught, but it could also just sound like he was admonishing the distracted teens nearby.

"We can handle a few measly monsters," Lloyd scoffs. "Let's go," he continues as he starts to head off towards a set of stairs directly in front of the group.

"Wait," Kratos orders and Lloyd stops to look at the man. "Lloyd… are your sword techniques self-taught?"

Lloyd instantly perks up thinking that the man had noticed his fighting prowess. "Yeah, that's right," he admits, proudly.

Skye nearly laughs. It was almost comical that the boy thought that Kratos was going to praise him. She knew that compliments didn't come from Kratos so easily after all the time that she had spent training with him over the last couple of months.

Kratos just shakes his head and reaches his hand into his bag. He takes out a moderately-sized, leather-bound book and walks over to give it to Lloyd. "I had originally brought this along in case my partner should need it," he explains as he makes a small nod in Skye's direction. "But I think you need it more."

"What is this thing?" Lloyd questions with a puzzled look on his face as he holds the book up vertically and allows the pages to flip themselves and as he gives them a quick look-over.

"If you are going to use a sword, then at least learn the basics," Kratos admonishes. "You want to protect the Chosen, don't you?" he continues with a raised eyebrow before walking past the boy, simultaneously leading the group up the stairs straight ahead of them.

Lloyd immediately takes on an insulted look. "Humph. You think you know so much!" he says under his breath. Here he was, thinking he was going to get some appreciation for his skill, and what he gets is mocked! He _really_ did not like the red-haired newcomer right now.

Skye sent him a slightly apologetic look and shrugged her shoulders before walking up the stairs to follow the group and leaving him to follow on his own. Everyone else was continuing up the set of stairs ahead of them.

After walking down the path for a few minutes, they came to the end of the hallway. Rather, what was currently the end of the hallway - there was a door ahead of them being blocked by some type of force field that seemed to be made of a blue light. It radiated from the center of a circular gate decorated with a swirling gilded design. Past the force field on the door ahead of them was a glowing symbol in the same style as the one on the floor of the previous room.

"Looks like a dead end," Genis points out. "Colette, do you know what we have to do to go farther?"

The blond girl shakes her head. "I'm sorry. I've never been to the inner portions," she explains.

"I'm sure something in this chapel will allow us to get through here. This hasto be a part of the trial. It's too conspicuous not to be," Skye states.

Kratos nods. "Yes, let's find a different route for now."

-0-0-0-

After taking a wrong turn to another dead end – this time due to the hall itself being collapsed – and running into a nest of large spiders that they had the unpleasant experience of destroying at the end of the hallway, they had finally taken the only other corridor that was left unexplored. This time, it had led them to a staircase leading down to the basement level of the holy building.

The room they had found after descending the stairs was different than anything they had seen in the chapel as of yet. While the main aspects of the room were still the same – still dark, damp, and stony – there was something very different in this room. Suspended about twenty feet above the bottom level of the room was a platform that seemed to be comprised of a crystal floor. It was a light blue color, much the same as the force field on the door that they had seen earlier, perhaps reinforcing the idea that the two were connected in some way. There were nine cut-outs in the floor, each with a gilded frame around them (also like the force-field door from the faux-dead-end hallway they had taken earlier).

The group continues walking onto the platform of the bi-level room after deeming that it will take their weight and make their way over to the nearest hole. Lloyd leans down and looks through the gap in the flooring. He lets out a low whistle after a moment. "Long drop," he comments. "There's a break in the path below, too."

Skye chooses this moment to stick her neck out as well, but before she can say anything Genis speaks up.

"Look, look!" he exclaims excitedly. "There's something glowing," he explains, pointing across a chasm close to the staircase they came from, and the party walks over to the edge to peer across. There's something resting upon a pedestal at an alcove in the wall. There's a staircase leading to it, but the path that it comes from has a gap in it, as well.

"Wow, let's go see it!" Lloyd says with a grin.

"Lloyd, don't you see the problem with that idea?" Genis asks sarcastically as he eyes the chasm and the missing part of the path.

Colette is the first one to turn back around. "Look, there's something here," she says tactlessly, immediately drawing the attention of what seems to be a golem. It begins to approach her, prompting Genis to call out to her, Skye to leap in front of her as she draws her sword, and Kratos to immediately take-off towards the creature, quickly followed by Lloyd.

Kratos reaches the golem before Lloyd and begins a deadly dance with the monster, slashing at it until the golem begins its retaliation which prompts him to quickly back step and throw up his shield as he carefully avoids both the strike and the nearby opening in the crystal floor. Skye covers his retreat, gripping her emblem necklace and quickly casting Aqua Edge right as Lloyd runs up and begins furiously stabbing and slicing at the creature and Colette simultaneously launches her chakrams. Genis, quickly realizing that he hadn't been contributing much to the battle, begins casting as Skye joins her fellow frontline attackers, leaving Colette behind her to provide some support from the mid-way area of the confusing room-turned-battlefield.

A few minutes (and a few bruises) later, the battle was over. After the golem had taken enough of a beating it collapsed in on itself. The party excluding Kratos, and Skye who follows his lead, assume that the threat is gone and begin to put away their weapons. However, the body of the golem begins to glow. Genis and Colette hold a hand up to their face to shield their eyes from the bright light as Lloyd merely squints at the glowing creature. Kratos gets back into a battle stance and Skye moves up to his side, watching the monster.

As suddenly as the glow came, however, it disappears, leaving behind a stone block in the place where the golem had previously lain.

The group is quiet for a few moments, all weapons once again drawn, as if waiting for something else to happen.

"Well that was anti-climatic," Skye says dryly, realizing that nothing else is going to happen as she breaks the silence and sheathes her sword again before reaching a hand up to her left side. The golem had caught her in the ribs, but she only felt bruised. She was pretty sure nothing was broken, thankfully. She would check later, after they left the Martel Temple, to be sure. _So this is the power of a Cruxis Crystal,_ she thinks. _Had this happened to me before, I probably would have quite a few broken ribs – or worse – now._

Kratos replaces his weapon as well, sensing that the danger is over. He glances over to Skye, as if silently asking her if she needs to be healed. She shakes her head, not wanting to waste any of Kratos' mana (and perhaps some hard-earned respect) on some mere bruising, and they join the rest of the party who have already moved over to investigate the newly-formed block.

"Wow!" Colette exclaims. "It turned into a rock."

"Well, it was kind of a rock to begin with," Lloyd says.

While Lloyd and Colette are caught up in their conversation about the 'rock,' Genis and Kratos have already gone back to investigating the room. Skye walks around to the opposite side of the block and inspects it. She then eyes the hole in the floor a few feet away.

"Oh, I get it," Skye and Genis say simultaneously.

"I see…" Kratos says milliseconds after the other two.

"What are you guys talking about?" Lloyd asks confusedly.

"I believe we need to use the block to bridge the pathways below us," Kratos explains. "That should allow us to access the rest of the lower level."

"I think Kratos is right," Genis states. Skye nods in assent.

Lloyd walks over to the block and begins to try and push it down into the nearby hole. Skye quickly realizes, however, that he isn't going to be able to do this himself. That doesn't stop the teen from trying, however. He's already been outshined by the red-haired mercenary once today, he wasn't about to ask for the man's help.

Skye thinks that Colette is probably the only person in the room who doesn't realize why Lloyd hasn't asked for some help yet. She takes pity on the boy, however, and approaches the struggling teen. He takes a break from his pushing for a moment (having only gotten about two inches at most) and takes a look at Skye before moving over so she can stand next to him and help his efforts of pushing the heavy 'rock.'

Skye and Lloyd continue trying to get the block to the desired destination, making better progress than Lloyd was before, but Kratos apparently isn't feeling particularly patient. He walks up to the pair and comes up on the other side of Skye, who moves closer to Lloyd, so she is in-between Kratos and Lloyd. Once all three of them are pushing the block together, they are able to quickly push it down through the hole in the floor.

Soon after they had finally achieved their goal, there is a feeling of displaced mana in the room and Genis and Skye look behind the group to see another golem has arrived. After realizing that they were going to have to do this for every missing piece of the path below, Skye sighs, feeling a bit less happy to be on this journey than she was before.

"Whoa, there's another one!" Lloyd exclaims.

"Let's take care of it, then," Skye says, taking out her sword and heading toward the monster as she follows Kratos who is already on his way to it.

-0-0-0-

A few more blocks, Lloyd's mutterings of never wanting to see another golem again, and a trip to the lower level of the room to walk across the restored pathways later, the party had finally made it to the pedestal that they had seen from the top of the crystal platform.

Lloyd is the first one to run up to the platform. Skye wonders how he can still be so excited after fighting golems and pushing gigantic blocks around for the past couple of hours, but figures she probably shouldn't question it. She's glad that someone had the energy to still be excited – she knew she didn't.

The rest of the group make it up the stairs at a sedate pace and arrive at the platform after Lloyd has already picked up the object and is inspecting it. Genis moves over to Lloyd and holds out his hand for the item and Lloyd promptly hands the item over to his younger friend.

"Is this the Sorcerer's Ring?" the younger boy questions. "I've heard about it before. It's a holy artifact of the Church of Martel!" The boy then passes it off to Colette.

Skye is a little impressed. The young boy seems to be quite a wealth of knowledge. Although she supposes that he should be rather advanced for his age, anyway. After all, he's a magic-user. She knows full well that it's difficult to learn. She had trouble learning it at her age; she could hardly imagine what it would be like trying to learn it when she was that young. The boy couldn't be more than twelve or thirteen, after all.

"With this we should be able to deal with most traps and obstacles," Kratos points out to the group.

"Like that sealed doorway back near the entrance," Skye reflects.

"Probably," Kratos replies with a nod.

"Wow!" Lloyd says animatedly. "Let me try it!"

"Okay, Lloyd," Colette says with a smile as she hands off the holy ring to her friend.

Skye hears Genis mumble something under his breath. It might've been, "You're like a little kid."

-0-0-0-

After traveling back through the temple, the party finally arrives back at the not-really-a-dead-end hallway. Lloyd is the first person to approach the force field, since he had been rushing ahead of the rest of the group for a majority of their trip back, due to his excitement. He pauses and looks at the ring on his finger, but doesn't attempt to use it yet. Instead, he turns back around and addresses his friends and the two mercenaries.

"Everybody okay?" he asks.

Skye is a bit surprised that after all his rushing to get there he actually stopped to consider how the others in the group might be feeling. Although she and Kratos were fine, Genis and Colette were starting to look a little worse for wear. After all, Genis was younger and smaller – he had to work a little harder to keep up with Lloyd's rushing pace along with the monsters. Colette was just a bit delicate. She wasn't quite used to all the fighting that they'd been doing.

"Y-yeah," Genis manages. "But why are there so many monsters in the temple?"

"This is part of the Chosen's trial," Kratos explains, placing a hand on his hip. "Weren't you aware of that when you decided to join her?"

Genis doesn't seem to have anything to say to that, and Colette looks down as if she's feeling a bit guilty, but Lloyd speaks up. "Of course I knew that," he says calmly.

"I'm sorry," the blond Chosen says quietly. "It's my fault you're here."

Lloyd looks surprised, but quickly moves to reassure his friend. "Don't worry about it!" he says as he walks over and places a hand on her shoulder, prompting her to look up at him. "It's for the sake of bringing peace to the world!"

"Dwarven Vow number one, right?" Genis says to his friends with a broad smile. Colette laughs.

"I told you to stop bringing those up," Lloyd mutters embarrassedly, but he does seem grateful to the boy for helping to cheer up their friend.

_Dwarven Vows…?_ Skye decides not to ask.

"Now that we've established that everything's fine, we should probably continue," Skye prompts.

Lloyd seems grateful for the attention being diverted away from his embarrassment. "Right," he says quickly. He moves closer to the force field and holds his hand up, with the ring on his finger facing outward. He concentrates for a brief moment, and a small fireball shoots out from the ring. It goes through the force field and hits a small switch in the wall on the other side, which then causes the wall to split down the middle and the two sides withdraw into the walls on either side.

"This is all the Sorcerer's Ring does?" Lloyd questions unenthusiastically.

Kratos places a palm to his face, and Genis says "You get bored so easily."

Skye walks forward, and utters a brief "Come on, Lloyd," as she lightly grabs him by the elbow and walks with him toward the small teleporter that appeared behind the newly-receded wall. Everyone else moves to join them, and they take the teleporter.

They arrive in a high dome-ceilinged room with some sort of large nearly circular thing with something shining in the middle of it taking up a majority of the floor in the center. The ceiling is intricately designed with a gilded vine-like pattern. There are many twists and curves of the trailing design. There is also a skylight that is covered by some sort of blue, almost watery-looking barrier. There are a few windows in the room, as well.

"This appears to be the top floor," Kratos observes.

"Yes," Colette confirms. "That's the altar," she explains, motioning toward the construct in the middle of the room.

"Then that shining thing there must be the Cruxis Crystal," Lloyd infers.

_Cruxis Crystal? It doesn't really look like mine… Not quite like Kratos', either,_ Skye muses silently. She and Kratos' Cruxis Crystals were more like variations of a normal exsphere. They were both a mix of a violet and blue color with a few speckles of green, rather than the almost flaming red of the shining Crystal on the altar.

"That's right. They say I was born with that in my hand," Colette states.

"Look at that light!" Genis exclaims, gathering everyone's attention, which is quickly directed toward the large amount of shining light being emitted from the once-normal turned extremely-bright skylight. After a moment, a small golden pin-point of light descends from the skylight. The small pin-point then emits a sudden, golden flash. After the flash, there's an angel hovering where the golden light once was.

Skye takes in the figure garbed in familiar robes, with golden hair and deep blue eyes and a pair of white-feathered wings, and realizes that she's seen him before. She recognizes him as one of the angels from Derris-Kharlan. She'd never interacted much with the man, but she's fairly sure that his name is Remiel. She makes eye contact with the man, but neither of them lingers for too long – perhaps not wanting to raise any suspicion. This isn't the time to talk about goings-on in Derris-Kharlan, after all. He's here for the Chosen.

"Wh… What is that?" Lloyd questions, awe-struck.

"An angel, I would assume," Kratos answers.

If Lloyd's so awe-struck now, Skye wonders what he would be like if he saw a seraphim's wings. She remembered the first time she saw Mithos' multicolored light-filled wings. Remiel's were practically mundane compared to those.

"So is that Colette's real father?" Genis questions, from what Skye thinks is seemingly out of nowhere.

Colette steps away from the group and moves forward, closer to the altar, and the golden-haired angel begins to speak.

"I am Remiel," he begins in a low, rich voice, as he confirms Skye's speculation. "I am an angel of judgment. I am here to guide Colette, daughter of the mana lineage, on her journey to heaven as the seventh Chosen," he explains. He descends slowly until he is hovering just above the altar. Once he stops descending, the Crystal suspended there rises up to him until it is about chest-high.

"The time has come to awaken the Goddess Martel, who sleeps at the center of the world," he continues.

"Awaken the Goddess Martel… It's just like the legend Raine told us about," Genis says quietly to Lloyd, not that it really escapes any of the enhanced senses of Skye, Kratos, and Remiel.

The Cruxis Crystal, currently suspended in front of Remiel, begins a slow descent toward Colette, trailing small sparkling pieces of light behind it. Once it reaches her, it stops moving. The girl looks at it for a moment before reaching out a hand to touch it. She touches it tentatively with an index and middle finger. When nothing happens, she reaches out with her other hand and uses both hands to grab it and bring it closer to her. She closes her eyes as if thinking intently and there is another flash of light. The girl opens her eyes, also opening her hands, and the Crystal has embedded itself in a golden necklace around her slender neck.

"From this moment, Colette becomes the Chosen of Regeneration," Remiel states, breaking the silence of the room. "We of Cruxis bless this event, and hereby bestow the Tower of Salvation upon Sylvarant," he says in his method of precise, measured speech as he raises an arm and gestures toward one of the windows off to the right of the group. Almost as if the angel's gesture prompted it, there is one more flash of light, this time from outside. This, combined with the angel's gesture, grab the group's attention and pull it towards the window. After the light fades, there is a structure that while far-off, can still be clearly seen. The Tower of Salvation is enormous, and stretches up into the sky and past the clouds. While it looks almost just like a thin pillar from here, it would be something truly amazing from closer-up.

"So that's the Tower of Salvation!" Lloyd states excitedly.

"Now the world will be saved!" Genis says.

"Colette, the Chosen of Regeneration," Remiel begins, drawing the groups attention back in his direction. "Unlock the seals that guard the Tower of Salvation and climb its stairs to heaven in distant lands."

The girl raises her hands and clasps them in front of her chest, closing her eyes as she says "I humbly accept this task," before opening her eyes slowly once more.

"Very good," Remiel states. "We of Cruxis shall grant you the power of the angels with each seal you unlock. Once you are reborn as an angel, this eroded world shall be regenerated."

"Thank you. I swear on my life I will regenerate the world," the girl says, voice full of resolve. It hurts Skye a little to hear it.

"First, head south to the Seal of Fire. Offer your prayers in that distant land," the angel instructs.

"Yes, Lord Remiel," Colette accepts. The angel then begins to ascend toward the skylight once more, but is stopped by Colette's ungraceful, hurried protest of "Uh, wait!"

She realizes how that sounds, and corrects herself, however. "Please, wait," she requests, more politely. "I have a question I wish to ask of you."

There is a pause as he awaits her question and she works up the courage to ask it.

"Are you really my fa-"

The angel cuts her off. "First, head to the Seal of Fire," he orders. "Understood? My beloved daughter, Colette," he continues in a softer, more understanding-sounding voice.

"F-Father! …So you really are my true father," she states, hopefully.

"We shall meet again at the next seal, my daughter," he replies, almost a bit hurriedly. Skye thinks that it sounds a bit forced. Is she the only one who noticed? Or perhaps it's just because she already knows that he's lying about some things, so she's more willing to see the rest of the truth. There is nothing to answer her question, and momentarily the 'angel of judgment' disappears in another flash of golden light. The only things left behind are a few feathers, floating in the air.

The party is silent for a few moments, but they then break apart to talk amongst themselves. Lloyd and Genis are off to one side, Colette is still in front of the altar, and Kratos and Skye are hanging back near the teleporter.

"Colette must now go on a long journey to search for those seals," Kratos explains to Skye who merely replies with a thoughtful look on her face and a small nod. They then just stand back and watch the teens, who have gathered together, Lloyd and Genis joining Colette in front of the altar. Lloyd has a hand on Colette's shoulder.

"I can't believe Remiel is my father…" she says quietly. "I'm alright. I was just a little surprised, that's all," she explains to the brunette teen, before walking toward the two mercenaries in the back of the room.

Lloyd and Genis follow after her, as Genis says "So that was the oracle. I wish Raine could have seen him."

"You've received the oracle," Skye says to Colette with a small reassuring smile as the teens approach her and Kratos.

"Then let us leave now, Chosen," Kratos addresses her.

"…Oh, yes," Colette replies with a thoughtful look on her face.

"We're going on ahead," Kratos says, gesturing to Skye and himself, before walking onto the teleporter.

Skye and Kratos arrive back in the hallway and Skye steps off the teleporter and turns back to Kratos. Before she says anything, Kratos speaks. "I know you probably have questions now, but they'll need to wait until later. Remember, discretion is important on this mission," he explains not unkindly.

Skye is quiet for a moment before nodding. "You're right," she says.

He walks toward her and once they're even with each other, they proceed to the entrance of the building where the wait for the Chosen. It's time to take her back home.

Skye isn't quite sure why, but something about Colette just makes her sad.

-0-0-0-

**A/N:** Hope you guys enjoyed the chapter! Once again, sorry about the long wait. Leave me some constructive criticism so I can become a better writer! See you next time! :)

P.S. - I'm also thinking about going back and fixing some of my earlier chapters. None of the plot will change, I'll just be making them better overall.


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